It’s been a while since a few podcasts all hit home.
Make Things That Matter #30 – Natalie Nagele: Building a people-first company at Wildbit
…the way I look at it is the entrepreneur [does] a thing because [they] want to prove a point. And I think the business person is there to make money.
What is this business you’re building? What’s the core purpose? …if the core purpose is just making money…[there are] cheaper ways to make money…you can work at Facebook and make a lot…if money is the only driver owning a business is not necessarily…the best approach…statistically that’s not your best bet.
…when it’s been most fun is when we’ve reflected on who we are as humans, and then applied that to what we want out of the business.
Word from the Herd – The Optimism Vision
One of the coolest things we can do as a leader is to create an environment that is enriching and where people can grow and prosper.
Assume everything will get better.
Hope in Source – Technology as Process (Maggie Appleton)
I do love all the ways that it shows up in modern culture outside of any religious connotation. I mean, when you talk about the self help industry or especially the obsession around habit forming. You know, the behavioral sciences.
And even right, like bootstrapping and hustle culture, it all just reeks of Protestant work ethic. All of it, right. Go into the incubator and you have to sleep three hours a night and just get your startup going. You know, what are people chasing except for some sense of salvation at the end where they think, well, if I do this, I’m gonna have been ethically in the right by the end of this.
And in the capitalist cosmology of this system, the reward is money instead of salvation. If we’re going to call American capitalism a religious belief system in itself, which wouldn’t be too difficult to argue, it is that your eternal salvation is you become a millionaire and buy a Ferrari. It’s not a millionaire anymore. Now it has to be a billionaire, you know, inflation.”