Freedom of Choice to Combat Internet Shock Wars

After 10 years of working in Silicon Valley, I’ve become more and more skeptical of the binary lense we view technology and what’s really…

After 10 years of working in Silicon Valley, I’ve become more and more skeptical of the binary lense we view technology and what’s really possible? Right or left. Republican or Democrat. Surveillance or privacy. Uber or Lyft. Where are the spectrum of options in which everybody wins? Why are the greatest minds in the world focused on putting listening devices and cameras in my home? Why is there so much innovation to choose from, all in the name of convenience and not opportunity, progress or equality?

Women drive 70–80% of all consumer purchasing. An estimated $18T in 2018 (source: EY). Despite this buying power and influence and the incredible work of activists to put pressure on releasing diversity reports, inclusion and diversity initiatives in big tech companies have become a cloak of charity to distract from questioning the quiet and deliberate monopolization of our future. While working inside of two of the largest tech giants, the teams are smart, hardworking, kind and genuinely want to solve very complex, global problems. Yet where there are no easy answers, there are people who benefit from the questions that go unasked. If it was up to me, we’d have technology that allowed me to drop my body off at the gym and pick it up when it’s ready. But I’d settle for health care not tied to my employment. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and influencers who know how to DJ and everyone is drinking poison just because we’re thirsty.

One of my favorite life mantras is:

Life gets much easier when you remove the overwhelming variety of choice.

I often fantasize about how much easier life would be if people just told me what to do. Unfortunately, my favorite life mantra is also what dictators say in movies to justify their actions.

The internet is a terrible place for people with no boundaries. I think this is why tech elite pretty much only talk about how little they consume regular rich people things. I hired a minimalist company to throw my whole life away once. It was super expensive but it required me to make choices. Keep or toss? I had to decide to do something. Eliminating my options, eliminated the choices I had to make. Like people who sleep with one pillow on their bed, I don’t trust it.

Media objectivity is an illusion that is declining faster than our ozone layer. Everyone has an agenda. The media portrays things as constantly going south so we stay stuck. Unable to see the choices to build the future right in front of us.

The stories we tell our grandchildren will be about change and those who resist it when everyone feels like they’re coming from a good place. Cancel culture and being unbothered started trending when we needed defense mechanisms against the internet shock wars. But it may have also kept us stuck. How do we build the world we want to live in when conversation, conflict and controversy driving the cultural zeitgeist are too busy drinking water and minding their own business?

Creating change means I have to act on a choice. I have to be bothered. There is no Prince Charming coming in to save the day. The world is in literal flames. You’re either with us or you’re against us but both of those things are better than not having a soul. We’re probably going to need a Disney princess who rode away from everyones bullshit after she snatched up someone’s dad. Welcome to the Era of Outrage.

These problems can’t be too big to address, if the company who created them became the most profitable company in the world, we’ll get richer than a Rockefeller trying to fix them.