Marc Andreessen famously wrote a piece for the WSJ entitled “Why Software Is Eating The World” in 2011. Given how all we can think about these days is whether we’re out of harm’s way, I’m wondering if the right phrase for these days is instead, “Safety eats the world.”
Let’s take that apart a bit, shall we?
First, let’s talk about safety. I’m thinking Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and that lowest layer — the physiological layer (air, food, water, warmth, rest, shelter) — and then above that layer is the safety layer (personal security, resources, health, stability. Tim van de Vall’s image is my favorite one out there.
Second, let’s talking about eating. And eating the world can sound a bit scary. Consider how Cookie Monster thinks of eating anything indiscriminately — but you still feel safe around him. Why? Because he only eats cookies voraciously — and as long as you’re not a cookie, you’re safe.
Unrelatedly, I like images of safety and how they include lifesavers — there’s a cool image to be made someday of an earth sitting within one of them. Also, there’s something about how we now perceive “dirty” as dangerous and threatening in a way that’s quite different than the past — like the recent aversion to cash by store owners.
Startups now, it's all about the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy –
— Ann Bordetsky (@annbordetsky) August 25, 2020
Food 🍎
Safety 🧪⛑
Family 👨👨👧👦
Mental Health 💆♀️
Human communication 💬
Livelihood 👩🏽💻
It's still a tech bubble but one that better reflects the world
Footnote: As a strange and funny coincidence, James Higa said the same thing at a recent meeting so it must be really happening :+).
Related Notes
- Chanel Miller: On Surviving Sexual Assault Miller’s book is a must-read on safety.
- On the nature of longstanding organizations and how newcomers succeed or fail Being a newbie in an org means risk on both sides.
- Just-in-time and Just-in-case Inventory C-19 revealed the fragility of the global supply chain.
- Lean is fragile 👆case in point.
- Antifragile There’s a limit to resilience.
- Survival mindset Humans are wired to survive.
- Uncertainty and Risk Regina Dugan is a risk-master.
- Statistics and Causality Bayes tells all.
- Perfection vs Imperfection Perfection is high risk.
- The Economics of Sequels Sequels reduce risk.
- Live Learning Doing things live introduces risk.
- Being a founder means making change Startups are experts at managing risk.
- Ben Ichinose Letting what happens go through you.
- Octopus Links The octopus is nature’s great antifragile organism.
- Jobs on having an undo key with cash reserves
- Kintsugi and the art of mending
- Kuramoto on the value of EX
