Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Great Founderism *loves* teen-nerd rebellion of the drop out of school hacker variety because 12-18 year old kids are uniquely vulnerable to charismatic halos, desperate for strong role models, have under-developed moral intuitions, yearn for pop-out significance and depressed by ordinary adult world. Cult feedstock.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
They are desperate to avoid what they see as ordinary fates of ordinary adults in their lives. They respond to You Too Can be the Chosen One messages. There’s always been this weird Horatio Alger Bildungsroman SV narrative equation of Charismatic Role Model on Top + Chosen Kid = Great Destiny. The middle is the Enem
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Which is weird because vast rank-and-file army of tech by definition is mediocre people content with mediocre lives. In an ideal world it would only be Great Men and Chosen Kids and everybody else would be replaced by robots and sent to battery pods in the Matrix. Unfortunately it turns out the Mediocre Army is needed.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
I think we’re about to break out if this cycle. The Greatness Larp will be sidelined and we’ll get a quieter era of self-effacing people doing stuff with low drama and aspiring only to typical rather than exceptional lives. It helps that “exceptional” has become synonymous with pure grief.
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andrewrose
@andrewrose
what makes you think we're breaking out of the cycle? My peer group (18-26 y/o) only seem more involved in the greatness larp than ever! I even find myself getting new anxiety about it, despite having broken out of it when I was in college! The pull feels so strong from here.
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Robert Atkins
@ratkins
Elon’s fall from grace is the nail in that coffin?
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