On several occasions over the last decade or so, I've witnessed famous SV CEOs make statements and write essays that say the most wonderful-sounding things. "I'

On several occasions over the last decade or so, I've witnessed famous SV CEOs make statements and write essays that say the most wonderful-sounding things. "I'm giving money to orphans", "I want to do X (Where X is a thing people love)", or in this case the match-and-lead "Yes, this is awful, isn't it? Here are some things you already agree to that will fix it" In each of these cases, two things happened. 1) The crowd and the media ate it up. What an amazing, insightful, kind, and effective thing for them to suggest! There was no in-depth coverage beyond that. People who criticized these statements got political push-back on the issues involved, not the quality or meaningfulness of the position 2) Digging into it, it was clear that these ideas were most likely extremely self-serving. Things were not what they appeared. The orphan guy was setting up a trust fund to dodge taxes, the X guy was dodging an important responsibility by finding a scapegoat -- and here we are with Zuck. The kindest thing I can say is that perhaps theses ideas and actions are both self-serving and in the public interest. But I kinda doubt it. People at Facebook are not morons. If we're seeing this problem now, they saw it many, many years ago. They've just been playing the long game, stalling until the stars align for the next phase which logically looks like regulatory capture. Growing the user base. Mining the machine for more money. I'm ok with people acting in their best interests and thinking so far ahead in a clever manner. These guys rock at it. What I'm not okay with is the example they're setting for our kids. A lot of kids and wannabe startup founders idolize these people. Is this the kind of generation we really want to raise?