The last seven days has been a weird moment of contrition in the Liturgy of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Actus Paenitentialis

through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault

Jack Dorsey. Through my fault

5 November 2022

Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that.

4:17 p. m. · 5 nov. 2022 ·Twitter Web App

“This situation”, of course, is the acquisition of the company he co-founded in 2006 by Elon Musk, who immediately fired thousands of employees. This is the right path…I believe it with all my heart, Dorsey had tweeted in April 2022. He had stepped down as CEO of Twitter in November 2021.

Twitter has never been too profitable, notwithstanding its market capitalization and final $44B paid by Musk. It is in fact completely ruinous in comparison with Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg. Through my fault

9 November 2022

Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history. I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1.

I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Message to Meta Employees November 9, 2022

Sam Bankman-Fried. Through my most grievous fault

10 November 2022

I’m sorry. That’s the biggest thing. I fucked up, and should have done better.
I also should have been communicating more very recently. Transparently–my hands were tied during the duration of the possible Binance deal; I wasn’t particularly allowed to say much publicly. But of course it’s on me that we ended up there in the first place.
(…)
And so we are where we are. Which sucks, and that’s on me. I’m sorry.
(…)
And, finally, I sincerely apologize.
We’ll keep sharing updates as we have them.

3:13 p. m. · 10 nov. 2022·Twitter Web App

11 November 2020

Hi all:
Today, I filed FTX, FTX US, and Alameda for voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings in the US.
I’m really sorry, again, that we ended up here.
Hopefully things can find a way to recover. Hopefully this can bring some amount of transparency, trust, and governance to them.
Ultimately hopefully it can be better for customers.

4:23 p. m. · 11 nov. 2022·Twitter Web App

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Dorsey, Zuckerberg and Bankman-Fried are three of the most celebrated heroes in the creation of new companies during the latest wave (10-15 years) in technological innovation, around social networks and crypto economy. We know that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. I admire people like them, able to try and eventually succeed, the gale of creative destruction.

But this confiteor is but an act of cynicism.

In stark contrast with the previous innovation wave, during the final decade of 20th century and first years of 21st century, when we saw the creation of companies like Amazon and Google, and products like the iPhone which have radically transformed the way we access and consume information, social networks (yes, Twitter and Facebook in particular) and crypto technologies (Blockchain) still pose more questions and confusion than a real sustainable contribution.

Just to be clear, this is my summary of the situation:

• Twitter is incredibly valuable source of information and communication, but it faces two key challenges: fake news & Identity and economic sustainability (profitability)
• Facebook is incredibly profitable, but just a Roman Circus. Facebook will eventually disappear. Oh wait, it has already disappeared!
• Crypto (blockchain) is a radical aspiration, but a botched technology. It can’t scale as it is and it will face the very likely unsurmountable opposition of nation states and governments. For the time being is vandalized by pirates.

If I still believed in those stylized models preached by consultants and business schools, I would say that social networks and crypto still has to cross the chasm or the frenzy phase of installation . But the problem is likely more complex. Both social and crypto touch upon fundamental pillars of our societies. They are the currency of democracies (if you still believe in Ratoncito Pérez).

Or perhaps deceptively simple:

• A (democratic) open agora cannot be funded by advertising.
• A botched technology cannot support a radical transformation of money and finance.

Will we see (soon) a new contrition act?

Right now the richest man in the world, the new gladiator in the Circus, the samurai, the priest Elon Musk is concentrated on solving problem #1 above. And the question is clear.

Is he what we need to solve this problem? Is it an engligthened billionare, a hero, the solution for a problem in which we are all involved with a lot at stake? Will he be able to defeat all the enemies who are trenched to defend the old status quo?

With his controversial style, and with great skill so far, he has managed to avoid falling in some easy temptations and move forward.

But I am sceptical. Imho, after nearly 15 years of frency, the solution does not say a lot about our capability to collective solve the challenges we are facing. He is just what we have, or as the saying goes (Spanish version of Hobson’s choice).

Son lentejas. Si quieres las tomas y si no las dejas

I apologyze for my contaminated English, and my scepticism.