Arc of the valley from Rick, basically the hero’s journey but in silicon valley
- Bright eyed on the ideals and optimism
- Disillusionment encountered at the dissonance
- Deep disillusionment, cynical about everything
- Matured state of making a difference where you can in your realm of control. Leaving the playground better than you found it
The true cynicism comes from dealing with nasty people and artificial problems and finding out that a lot of the promises made around social good are empty. The one redeeming factor is the amazing people you get to work with. That’s the magic that you can find and seek out.
This is the 57th installment in my experiment of publishing raw, lightly edited mini-essays every day towards achieving 100 public pieces. Check out the rationale and the full list here.