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YC deliberately cultivates these "leadership" traits in order to ensure that the abuses built into corporate hierarchies are perpetuated. It's all part of the s

YC deliberately cultivates these "leadership" traits in order to ensure that the abuses built into corporate hierarchies are perpetuated. It's all part of the system. In your example, YC deliberately advises conflating stubborness, or the ability to resist peer pressure, with self-confidence. The idea is to encourage a me-vs-the-world mindset. "Every great leader", huh? This sounds like the sort of situation where if I name anybody who's not obviously a narcissist, then you'll quibble that they're not truly great or truly a leader. Certainly I'd agree that it's common, but even just in the USA, there are examples like Eisenhower or Carter where they manifested not just a modicum of humility, but genuine altruism and empathy above and beyond the typical American sentiment. I will agree that nobody gains ambit without ambition, but even a society with no leaders can still be lead by somebody unready. You also need to keep in mind that no leader leads without a following, and leaders are never alone in silent rooms. The actions of a government or a business are rarely due to a single person. No single man has ever carried out a genocide on his own. At some point, you'll need to confront the difference between business ethics and ethical business: When do you choose not to do things, even when they're both good for business and legal? And YC doesn't have answers for you there other than to be extremely self-confident and take the Zapp Brannigan path.

jariel 6y ago
No, YC is absolutely not trying to carry narcissistic behaviour into the corporate world. I'll be that on the whole, YC companies probably have better, more self aware leaders. That you can name 2 presidents of many with more legit humility than ego actually makes my point for me: the rest are mostly egoists to a greater or lesser degree. Also - those leaders worked in the field of public service wherein the ostensible motivation is inherently public oriented, it's a little easier there to be 'clean' because the opportunity for fraud and graft doesn't really present itself very often while wearing an Army uniform, for example.

jariel 6y ago

No, YC is absolutely not trying to carry narcissistic behaviour into the corporate world. I'll be that on the whole, YC companies probably have better, more self aware leaders. That you can name 2 presidents of many with more legit humility than ego actually makes my point for me: the rest are mostly egoists to a greater or lesser degree. Also - those leaders worked in the field of public service wherein the ostensible motivation is inherently public oriented, it's a little easier there to be 'clean' because the opportunity for fraud and graft doesn't really present itself very often while wearing an Army uniform, for example.