Emmanuel Quartey

zachklein:

Yancey Strickler posted an item yesterday about the wane of conspicuous consumption among wealthy people in Silicon Valley. But, as it turns out, conspicuousness hasn’t vanished. The post suggests that the Startup is the new conspicuous. Look at What I’ve Done.

The first comment on that…

“Conspicuous Production” is such a great phrase. It puts a name to a pattern of behaviour that both inspires and troubles me. I believe that there is a net benefit to people competing on what they do, rather than on what they have. Imagine a world where everyone is striving to make/build/develop/ship something that makes all our lives better/easier/safer. That sounds pretty awesome.

But I also worry that conspicuous production incentivizes busy work. Look at my photo sharing app/social network for college students/NGO. It’s all too easy to say “YES!” to the dopamine hit of yet another low-hanging fruit project, while more difficult challenges go unresolved because they don’t allow us to say “I made a thing!” within a very rapid timeline.