I’m glad there’s a lot of people commenting negatively below to PGs modus operandi (rationalizing maximum greed in seemingly thoughtful measured essays that make him seem like a kindly philosopher instead or digital robber barron)
Like Ayn Rand, and PT Barnum before them VCs and Tech Bros will be looked at with great hostility in next years as having destroyed society with their brand of hyper-capitalism all in the name of “disruption”
I think he specifically speaks against maximum greed here? "create more value than you capture", "have the best product", "Being generous makes you more powerful" etc.
I think its a wolf in sheep's wording - PG is a master of reasonableness to amplfiy greed behind nice sounding words - note he always says “caring about value , caring about market, product etc” but not caring about people their lifestyle or human value or even established ethical companies - everything is a hammer in the nail of disruption
Meanwhile he moves his family to England and Europe to take advantage of small town life, more govt protection less screen time for his kids etc
The VC model is about funding supergrowth potential sustainably for PROFITS not society
Its all about extracting every ounce of profitability in any situation not about caring for employees, customers etc with the expectation that trickle down disruption will benefit society
We’ve had 20 years of this in the us -are we better off?
A part that rubs people wrong is that they have no choice and competition doesnt exist outside the vc ecosystem. VC can subsidize a non profitable model for a decade often with an ipo that isnt profitable for another decade of net zero value creation. It isnt capitalism.
It is a pay to play game where if you are not in the club, you have little chance of playing let alone winning.
The cherry on top is the culture of cheating, lying, stealing, and all kinds of other “disruptive” tactics is actively encouraged and cheered on. This is while claiming to be altruistic too.
The public is growing a strong deep hatred of sv, whose only response seems to be calling everyone poor and laughing. It is sad, because I still think technology is a force for good.
Like Ayn Rand, and PT Barnum before them VCs and Tech Bros will be looked at with great hostility in next years as having destroyed society with their brand of hyper-capitalism all in the name of “disruption”