QUESTION…What Do the Following Have in Common?

1. Twitter misses its advertising target, again.
2. Hate Speech is on the rise on Twitter.
3. The Crypties Award ceremony, Oscars for Web 3.0 (say they), goes on.

And there’s more I could add…including Facebook's inability to block ads actually threatening election workers.?

My loyal readers are smiling while rolling their eyes at my usual cynicism…newcomers to Imagine are wondering if my phone dropped on my head.?

Actually, it's a serious question…not cynical or addled at all…with a very simple answer.?

What they all have in common is arrogance. The arrogance of our digital world—call it Silicone Valley Arrogance—or SVA as shorthand….although it's not limited to the Valley.?

It's a unique arrogance that tries to pass itself off as digital leadership and future-visionary thinking. While, in other words, the rest of us are stuck in a binary, boring state with little or no ability to imagine the world that they are building and leading us to.

True leadership, as I have written many times before, has at its core true humility. Not false, Uriah Heep, humbleness…or the Bankman-Fried brand of “who, me?” fake contrition.?

SVA is all about power trying hard to masquerade as leading-edge, “follow me” thinking—yet power is not about leading, it's about pretending consensus through fear…fear as in FOMO, being called out for anything, or of not being a cool insider playing with the visionaries…who, by the way, are laughing all the way to the bank.

Of course, Twitter missed its revenue goals. It's a S**T show. So much to discuss…but simply, instead of addressing the issues, Musk threatened to call out advertisers who pulled or limited their spending on his new platform. Take Apple, for example. Much like many brands do as SOP, when tragedy strikes, they dialed back after five people were killed in the LGBTQ Nightclub in Colorado Springs. Brands do this so as not to diminish the sad news with inappropriate content. However, Musk tweeted, “Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter…do they hate America?”?

SVA.?

And General Motors is worried that Musk will take their data and use it for Tesla—the entitlement of SVA.

As for hate? SVA has that in hand as well. A month or so ago, Musk shared a graph that “proved” that “hate speech impressions” were down a third since he took over…this despite every other measured source saying that racism, homophobia, and Anti-Semitism are trending higher than anyone has seen before. But who cares? SVA…you see, he is a “free speech absolutist”, the rest of us are clearly stiflers (I imagine).?

And to be fair to Elon Musk and not paint him as the source of all that’s arrogant and disdainful in our world, let’s move on to Crypto and its worldview.?

The Crypties are unadulterated SVA. Awards are given, accepted, and celebrated with hubris while the bottom falls out of the market…fraud and pure con are rampant. Frankly, the rhetoric around it all is so laden with double-speak and BS that it's a hard slog to even read without gagging. But what do we know? Are we creating and selling panties that say “Highly Liquid” across the front as physical merch for NFT purchase? Can’t make that up…

Honestly? I can’t even write about this one as it's just so SVA…and a con as well.?

So? What do all these have in common??

They are, in my opinion, barriers to creating a better world using digital applications, including blockchain and NFTs. What’s missing is real leadership—the kind of leadership driven by accountability, not power grabbing, blame spreading, and fear.

I did mention Facebook, didn’t I? Easy one that…never forget that the Facebook prototype was created to troll women—a power creation by sad nerds….SVA at its basest and it’s still churning along…

What’s your view?