“Silicon Valley” ends with - Spoiler Alert - the guys blowing up everything instead of letting their product hit market. The Pied Piper crew uncovers an issue in regards to privacy security so they sabotage their own launch and find a different path forward. One of the more blatant rebuttals of Capitalism in mainstream media and the idea that making more money makes you successful.
“Tetris,” a mostly fascinating drama on how one of the biggest video games of all time made it into the hands of the masses, is a mostly accurate and mostly enjoyable film that sells the same message we’re always sold. Making a lot of money is the end game. Yet, the game was made as a way for a person to kill time at work.
Technology has helped shatter one of the biggest myths used to control a working force. People won’t create without an economic stimulant. Turn on Youtube or TikTok and you’ll find a ton of people that have created channels with the desire to create or to share. Some of them get successful from it, but others do it just because they want to let other people know how to do something they struggled to learn.
DIY projects, home improvement, cooking and so many other tasks that people should know how to do are made accessible by the internet. Education has become more democratized than ever. Misinformation is quickly debunked by things like reddit, even as people use the platform to Astroturf and spread misinformation. As Silicon Valley taught us, if there is a way for people to exploit it, they will.
And they will tell you it is because it is in pursuit of profit. Alexey Pajitnov got rich because his game was spread to the masses. The other message in that movie is that a bunch of people who didn’t do anything to make the game, they just provided access to the game, also got very rich.
The real Pajitnov, well, here’s his feelings on it:
Profit is the Goal
I once had a conversation with my wife about the purpose of a business and her response was very accurate for our economic climate, “to make a profit.” She’s right, in regard to what most businesses’ goals are. In fact, a lot of businesses work to MAXIMIZE profit.
What does that mean, though, if your business is prioritizing profit? Profit becomes the end game. The end all, be all of success. I argued at the time that a business’ priority should be something different - to provide a good or service - and that profit should be a side effect. And what should profit really go toward?
Typically it goes to people that had nothing to do with making that money. Shareholders, investors, owners and CEOs. People that did nothing but have capital. Something I always have found interesting is that the more you’re removed from the people making a decision in a business, the more trust there is in the decision making. Elon Musk types are frequently lauded, even if the internet is helping shatter that illusion.
I’ve known a lot of successful businessmen. Most of them capitalize on a situation far more than they provide anything of substance. They take Pajitnov’s benevolence and Henk Rogers’ hard work to get the game available globally and reap a lot of the rewards. Their story is actually one where the system didn’t outright win, as they fought to keep the rights to the game and won. And, unfortunately, they became the very establishment that would have exploited them by aggressively shutting down any potential claimants to their puzzle-y throne.
Profit prioritization means that people get stuck in a job and create a game to kill downtime. It means that many things that people should know how to do are demonized - cooking and cleaning are more important to your day to day life than profit optimization. Who makes more? A cook or a CEO? I’ve listened to businessmen rationalize unethical decisions as a sound business decision. Even if it isn’t a good long term decision. Who does more productive work? A cook or a CEO. Well, I certainly get more benefits out of someone who can cook than I do someone who can exploit people effectively.
That’s the other side of that coin, as we’re seeing come to fruition these days. People are rewarded for their ability to maximize profit today with no mind for the future. Businesses are chasing new highs, new records and consequences be damned. Consumer goods have gotten lower quality. They cost less to make and need to be replaced more often. Labor, the highest cost of a business, is quickly devalued.
A Different Path
One thing I’ve found is that almost any job worth doing has people that will do it because they want to. Entertainment is important and TikTok is loaded with future professional entertainers. People garden and cook for fun, I’m a prime example of that. Most people, I’ve found, want to contribute in some way. I can even accept that some jobs need a bigger reward because they carry a higher burden.
But what if we took profit out of the equation. How much does that change things? Right now, it would be catastrophic. Our entire world would collapse, because we’ve allowed it to be built around exploitation. People can’t even see a different way forward, because everything in our world is feeding the same machine. I think sometimes about the scene in Ted Lasso where the team therapist chastises Ted for accusing her of only being a therapist for money.
First of all, what a ridiculously outlandish proposition. The idea that therapists are in someway making a ton of money is laughable. But the great thing the show does is it challenges that stereotype in the best way. She asks Ted if he would be a coach if he wasn’t being paid a ridiculous sum (far more than she is paid in this scenario) and he replies that he would. He loves being a coach. But he has to take a paycheck.
People love teaching. People love growing food. People love cooking. Some people even love cleaning, those masochists. People love building and learning and creating. Our system has been built around devaluing and exploiting our love to create. Ironically, one of the things I admire about the founding fathers of the United States is that they knew people were going to be like them going forward. Selfish and cruel. They had the wisdom to know their path wasn’t perfect. Because they were dealing with each other and saw the machinations they were employing in real time.
The Future is Cancelled
Is this a viable path forward? Probably not in my lifetime. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight for it. There is a growing labor movement in the USA. Occupy Wall Street was, at the time, ridiculed but it was our Arab Spring. It laid the foundation for organization that is bearing fruit today.
Sure, some places like HBO are capitalizing on anti-Capitalism media. That’s nothing new. That message is getting louder and louder. More pronounced. More unavoidable. Landmines will exist in this world too though. I think about White Lotus, a show that pretends at mocking the status quo but ultimately reinforces a lot of the messages it was supposedly lampooning.
And the allure of selling out is always there. What makes Silicon Valley a fairy tale, more than anything, is that the tech bros took the ethical approach instead of selling their ethical approach when the work got to be too much. At some point, the allure of more overtakes most success stories. They go from being an “electronic ambassador of benevolence” to a lawsuit prone company fiercely protecting against people that will never actually challenge their throne.
That’s the danger of celebrity, which is ironic in the face of one of the biggest entertainment strikes in US history. Writers and Actors are on strike in solidarity. A lot of media will demean the rich figureheads for being rich people looking out for working class people. Because that’s how things could be and those rich people are class traitors. I guess I’m just thinking about the messages we get in our day to day lives and where they are coming from.