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> I guess what you're saying is that apprehension about the motives of of corporate executives is so irrational, it's akin to a psychological problem. No, that
by samhw 4y ago
> I guess what you're saying is that apprehension about the motives of of corporate executives is so irrational, it's akin to a psychological problem.
No, that wasn't what I was saying there, but coincidentally, yes, I would agree with that statement. For one, 'corporate' is a phenomenally lazy word used to invoke some mental image of besuited sociopathy, from a million children's movies and internet debates. In the real world, 'corporate executives' - human beings, mothers and fathers, working in management careers at (large) companies - are humans doing jobs, like any other humans doing jobs.
I've been involved (as an engineer) in C-level meetings with people like that, as well as worked alongside them in the same teams, and my experience - thoroughly unsurprisingly given what I said above - is that they are pretty ordinary human beings on the whole. I'm sure there are differences between companies in terms of their cultures or values, but that's company-specific and not discipline-specific or seniority-specific.
I get that your experience is that these are people who mete out decisions from on high, which affect you in sometimes-negative and always-unforeseen ways, and that makes you feel like a mediaeval peasant might have felt towards his feudal liege. And maybe it's helpful, from a cathartic standpoint, like I said above, to picture them as evil baddies from kids' movies. But no, the reality is more banal.
(Incidentally, I think those who worship company CEOs - and suchlike - are equally stupid, from the Elon bros to the HackerNews types who recite stories about startup founders as though they were superheroes. These people underestimate the role of chance and – in a way, very similarly to you – overattribute the differences between execs/founders vs regular workers to a proportionate difference in their inner essence [in their case, they think intelligence & industry; in your case, you think amorality]. Both are fantasies.)