“Beef marketing” is such a pure projection of VC ideology: It’s inconceivable that someone would actually stand for something other than a hockey-stick curve, that any display of principles must simply be another #GrowthHack.
This is why the VC reactions to HEY or It Doesn’t Have To Be Crazy At Work are so raw and wounded. They both represent an affront to a core character set, and therefore must be defeated at all costs. Erich Fromm has a wonderful diagnosis of this syndrome in To Have Or To Be.
That’s why these divergent principles - opposing monopolies, calm 40h work weeks, etc - need to be recast as something petty, like a beef. These are not the squabbles you should be looking for! Do not examine the root arguments, be not smitten by the principles!
I’ve been writing about these topics and trying to deconstruct VC ideology for a long time. A good place to start is with RECONSIDER: m.signalvnoise.com/reconsider/
Then you might want to continue with: m.signalvnoise.com/exponential-gr…
Or you could start with one of the oldest incarnations. My talk at Startup School in 2008:
Beef marketing: Trolling done for #GrowthHacking purposes. Riling people up not because of the principles at stake, but merely to sell stuff.
If you've been ensnared, or even just enthralled, by VC ideology, I can warmly recommend getting on the literary bench with Eric Fromm. Start your deprogramming with To Have Or To Be, then The Sane Society, then Man for Himself. 📚❤️ bookshop.org/books/to-have-…
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