- There’s definitely a “maker mentality” at the core of Valley Ideology. I think it’s closely connected with existentialism and American transcendentalism, in particular with Emerson’s Self-Reliance, as well as other positions that extol individualism and heroism.
The “ideal man”, as Rand would say, is a productive maker, a tireless and uncompromising innovator who believes something so passionately and, despite the odds stacked heavily against her, fights until the death to make that vision a reality. The commitment to this idea echoes what Heidegger said about the philosopher being a madman about one idea. I think any innovator, in whatever domain —whether academia, government, corporate, finance, tech, etc.— adheres to a similar framework of “making it”. I don’t think it’s something inherent or indigenous to Silicon Valley. That it’s correlated with Silicon Valley says more about those who’ve emerged as public figures, and the attention given to their values. But, ultimately, for Rand, her focus pivoted around those individuals whose thought, creativity, and drive lifted mankind from the cave to the glistening skyscrapers of modern cities. The maker, so goes the position, is she who works long and hard over many years, triumphing over obstacles, setbacks, and critics —much like /Atlas Shrugged’s/ Hank Rearden.
I often recall a wonderful passage from Sartre’s /Existentialism as Humanism/ wherein he assesses the commitment displayed toward a particular idea or belief. From this he extrapolates from subjectivity to objectivity: the person who harbors such passion about a belief does so with the additional belief, operating behind the scenes, that this truth for me is a truth for the world at large. (Much like when I get pissed when someone doesn’t agree with my aesthetic taste in film.) He writes, “The word ‘subjectivism’ is to be understood in two senses, and our adversaries play upon only one of them. Subjectivism means, on the one hand, the freedom of the individual subject and, on the other, that man cannot pass beyond human subjectivity. It is the latter which is the deeper meaning of existentialism. When we say that man chooses himself, we do mean that everyone of us must choose himself; but by that we also mean that in choosing for himself he chooses for all men. For, in effect, of all the actions a man may take in order to create himself as he wills to be, there is not one which is not creative, at the same time, of an image of man such as he believes he ought to be. To choose between this or that is at the same time to affirm the value of that which is chosen; for we are unable ever to choose the worse.”
We refuse to live for the sake of others and hold creative production as the goal of our existence, working until the very last day possible before passing away.
This extreme commitment to thinking for oneself belies a value held firmly by most philosophers, but generally, it calls to mind Kant’s famous essay ‘What is Enlightenment?’ Here, Kant defines “enlightenment” as “man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage ”. He concludes the famous essay by daring all of us to have the courage to think, or the courage to know, /sapere aude/.
The primary position of Rand’s objectivist philosophy is a maniacal commitment to the facts, not to the whims of other people or other people’s ideas. This is partly the reason for the Valley’s praise of failure, in particular the respect one receives if she tries something highly original and fails as opposed to copying an idea and succeeding.
Create more value than you capture. Seek only win-win relationships. If you try to capture more than what you create, then you seek something you’ve failed to earn. When she creates more than what she captures, she ensures that those with whom she trades also receive something out of the relationship.
This is also part of “playing the long game”. Remember that the relationships that one builds need to last a lifetime. Hence, those in the Valley who hoodwink or manipulate co-founders, employees or investors are denounced whereas those who honestly and bluntly admit mistakes are adored. Rand’s ethics is based on the idea that to flourish and thrive, one must think and act long-range. The grubbing, short-term mentality is ultimately self-destructive. And, this is precisely why a philosophy that advocates self-interest also demands ruthless honesty, integrity and justice.
Unlimited Ambition: Perhaps the spirit of the Valley with which I most identify. The inextinguishable, undaunted appetite for creative innovation, no matter how risible, no matter how esoteric, no matter how subversive it might seem. I think this is the core of the Valley. That insurmountable drive to do great things, to achieve the extraordinary, to change the world.