This is not too hard to grok when you think about the GenX tech bro earned his billions.
Let me put it this way:
Let me put it this way:
The tech set in question came to Silicon Valley before this was a legible, well trodden career path for bright young ones in the Ivy League.
He began his life story the smartest nerd in his high school. He probably had a hacker background or at least embibed the hacker ethos.
If you want an image of what that felt like read this:
phrack.org
If you want an image of what that felt like read this:
phrack.org
At its most basic hacking is about seeing, then exploiting, the structure that lies underneath facade. By way of analogy, you see a building, he sees posts, beams, and pillars. You see a UI, he sees the system behind it.
The traditional hacker does this to information systems—to succeed he manipulates both people and processors.
Silicon Valley, especially in the 1995-2015 era, did the same thing on a much more dramatic scale.
Silicon Valley, especially in the 1995-2015 era, did the same thing on a much more dramatic scale.
All the big tech companies exist because a few guys first figured out how the internal structure of any existing industry worked. They grasped the structure behind the facade.
Then they further grasped how new technology could be used to turn that industry on its head.
Then they further grasped how new technology could be used to turn that industry on its head.
They probably did this when they were like 24.
So that is the formative experience of their youth.
So that is the formative experience of their youth.
Tech is filled with a host of bros who, as a nerdy kid out of college, had the smarts to understand something an entire industry—with its executives, strategy teams, market research, investors, lawyers, and years of established practice—did not understand about *itself.*
Anyone who has done this will have little respect for established expertise and possess supreme confidence that they have a supernal ability to quickly grasp the fundamental features of any complex system they come across.
So we have these guys who were the smartest kids in their high schools who did not take the path of common wisdom, who then confirmed their own capacity by beating billion dollar industries at their own game, often by discerning a future no one else could see.
There are a few other important tidbits here: it mattered that they came to Silicon Valley to do this—SV was the heir to the the counterculture “distrust the MAN—by being a man who knows a bit about everything” culture embodied in things like the Whole Earth Catalogue.
It also matters that so many of these guys went on to Venture Capital. If their original company taught them to master one industry; VC investing requires familiarity with many.
Few other careers touch so much—traditional finance is one of them (and traditional finance guys are just as opinionated and confident as the tech bros—the difference is that they share their opinions at Aspen, not on Twitter).
In many ways this makes tech bro culture much healthier than many of its competitors.
Here in Washington DC bragging rights go to those who write books; in San Fransisco, bragging rights go to those who *read* them.
Here in Washington DC bragging rights go to those who write books; in San Fransisco, bragging rights go to those who *read* them.
My personal take is that the average GenX tech bro is indeed far more intelligent, and far more capable of quickly grasping new ideas, than almost anyone else—except the finance bros in NYC.
But they do have their problems.
Two in particular.
Two in particular.
The first: I’ll readily admit that most of these men, provided they had the time to do so, could master any subject I am familiar with and out analyze me on it. it isn’t a question in my mind.
But here is the catch: none of them have that time.
But here is the catch: none of them have that time.
So despite their talents many tech bros have middling takes because they have put middling effort into understanding the topic they nevertheless feel compelled to opine on. It is a real weakness across the entire scene.
They often do not realize this weakness because #2: tech circles are unhealthily incestuous. The entire tech bro ideology is built around this idea of being the heterodox outsiders to established ways of thinking….
Which is fine and in some ways true, but it binds participants to a very narrow intellectual scene where groupthink is the default condition.
Again, the finance bros are useful point of comparison here. The diversity of sources finance types consult always astounds me.
Again, the finance bros are useful point of comparison here. The diversity of sources finance types consult always astounds me.
I really had no appreciation for how well read, broadly learned, news informed and generally blindingly smart senior Wall Street guys were until I had a chance to meet some. Top of the top.
Their problem is that all they care to use their gifts for is $.
Their problem is that all they care to use their gifts for is $.
I do not have such nice things to say about executives in other industries. In my experience they are exactly what you expect.
(My exposure is in some ways limited though: I have never met anyone senior in an energy firm, for example. One might hope such a person has geopolitical insight. Then again, Rex Tillerson didn’t…)
As a final note, there is an element of luck the tech bro whose made it generally does not like to acknowledge. Most had failed start-ups before they birthed unicorns; the VC track record is even worse.
Their innate aptitudes and learned skills were part of their success story—you couldn’t just switch anyone into their shoes and still see the same success. But for most of them accidents of fate and quirks of the market place played a decisive role in their rise.
Remembering that gives the best of them pause—and admirable intellectual humility.
That’s it. Like this tweet if you want me to turn it into a blogpost.
P.S.
Everything I wrote here about how public intellectuals have 5-8 year shelf lives and usually peak before 50 is just as true for tech bro intellectuals and accounts… for at at least some of the podcasts you’ve listened to.
scholars-stage.org
Everything I wrote here about how public intellectuals have 5-8 year shelf lives and usually peak before 50 is just as true for tech bro intellectuals and accounts… for at at least some of the podcasts you’ve listened to.
scholars-stage.org
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