Being on the alternative end of the values spectrum, my family has never had a television. While in this day and age, with the ability to stream everything online, not having a TV is not much of a big deal, when our kids were younger it was quite the case of negligent parenting. Making do with card games, walks in nature and (shock, horror) reading books – sacre bleu!
Now that we are empty nesters, we’ve begun to make up for lost time. To be clear, we still don’t have a TV, but watching programmes on a laptop screen while sitting side by side on the sofa is as close to home theatre as we get.
One series we’ve been watching of late is Super Pumped. Super Pumped is a dramatization of the rise and fall of Uber, and gives an inside view into what went into creating this company. While we might now take ordering an Uber for granted, and forget there was a time before doing so was possible, it is always informative to look back at the journey that companies like this take. If for no other reason than to take away some lessons that we, with our own aspirations for a technology-fueled “new economy” could well think about.
For those who haven’t haven’t heard much of Uber’s history, it’s worth spending a little time investigating. Uber’s co-founder and initial CEO, Travis Kalanick, epitomizes the archetype of a Silicon Valley founder. He’s obsessive beyond belief, believes that anyone or anything that stands in his way should be destroyed, and is utterly convinced that he, and the company he leads, have all the answers. Uber’s transgressions are legion and even the most cursory of Google searches will deliver a treasure trove of examples of privacy breaches, sexual misconduct, hyperbole and disdain for authority and its regulatory framework.
All of this was driven by Uber’s mantra, a mantra which is unquestionable in Silicon Valley: Grow or Die. These companies have a perspective that the only way to guarantee success is to grow at all costs – even if it means throwing truckloads of money at loss-making initiatives. They also share a scornful perspective of traditional structures – seeing government of all types as being an impediment to progress. Silicon Valley insiders tend towards libertarianism and are quick to deride regulation of any type. Ironically they’re also quick to call for Government intervention when things turn south, as we saw recently during the demise of Silicon Valley Bank. They’re staunchly capitalistic when things are tending upwards, but curiously tend towards socialism when the bubble starts to burst.
But I digress.
Why this strikes me as something we want to think about here in New Zealand is the overwhelming drive by organisations, both public and private, to strive to create the “Silicon Valley of the South Pacific” in our neck of the woods. It seems like everyone concerned has seen the good sides of Silicon Valley (of which there is probably only one, truckloads of cash), but blatantly ignored all the deleterious impacts. Consider the huge inequities, from income to the cost of housing, from transportation to employment opportunities. Think about the breakdown in social structures as people make the move from a “we” perspective to one which exclusively focuses on the “me.” Cogitate on the tendency to laugh at democracy and an equal voice to all but rather to advocate for the elites to have the loudest voice. Essentially you have neo-feudalism being created and all that goes with it.
Sadly I’ve recently seen a number of examples of New Zealand companies acting like Silicon Valley ones and gunning for a growth model that ignores any impacts on people or the planet. New Zealand isn’t perfect but we were the first country to give women the vote. We have a proud history of striving for equity in the workplace and we’ve always been known for humility and quiet execution. While these approaches might deliver to the financial metric, they certainly don’t do right by people and the planet.
We need a deeper conversation here in New Zealand about what we aim for. We need to find a model that delivers better outcomes for all – not simply a further concentration of wealth to an increasingly small proportion of the community. Yes, under the current construct we need to grow GDP to pay for the increasing costs of healthcare and social services, but we don’t need to throw out our historical moral frameworks to do so.
We all need to buy in to an achievable and desirable vision for our future, ideally one which doesn’t come with the sort of collateral damage created by the likes of Uber and its ilk. Watching television can sometimes be a time sink, but it can also provide some insights into what can occur when we take a wrong path. let’s not go there.
