If you're not the CEO you're nothing

And other human social approximations

What’s the point of a wedding

What’s the point of a quinceañera

We do these social transitions to announce to everyone [I am no longer X; I am Y]

We used to have one of these about sex

“I have fucked; I’m a woman/man now”

(There’s tons of media about sex as phase-change)

In modern secular life, it’s less significant

And the current Adulthood phase change is marked by something like, coming out,

taking agency over your own self-definition. Not necessarily as gay, but,

“Hey Parents: your vision of me as X is wrong; I am Y.”

or indeed “Hey Society:…”

I experienced one of those

When I became a CEO of a real company for the first time

I noticed that people were treating me differently.

(Women, yeah, but that was expected)

Men too—you’re not an Adult until you’re taking actions in the real world

There’s a sense in which that’s when you start playing the game for real

CEOs will not take you seriously unless you are the CEO

You are the Responsible Party and your job is no longer “convince your boss you did a good job” but rather the bald no-excuses completion of the necessary work, in reality

And if it goes badly there is no one to cry to and no one to blame

I mean, you can blame your subordinates if you want, but

it ‘s You who was on the hook and who is the public punching bag and who receives the glory and the shame

you cannot via wordcel symbol-manipulation produce a real steam locomotive.

it is you who will be crucified.

So, downstream of this

I have, actually, found most CEOs to be alive in ways that most people aren’t—

(obviously there’s some selection bias here)

—but I have found them, most of the time, to be adults

(and obviously cracked and insane in other different ways.)

Because it is you who will have the Oppenheimer moment if you fuck up

It should be someone wiser doing this, some Great Man, who’s truly considered the morality and the opening of the genie-bottle, who’s ready to stand upright before god and say Yes, I chose this, and it was right.

your employees will protest, I vas only followink orders

and the media will ignore how “Elon” is not “Tesla”, so it’s your name is on the articles

you are playing for real, and there are stakes.

and it is perhaps the first time I was Alive.

Now, nothing had prepared me for it

it is dangerous to have your head above the rest of the wheat

you invite the sickle.

(Because the higher your status, the more people gain status by bringing you down.

Status is zero sum!

and there are entire communities based on their hate for celebrities

because even though small-town-douchebag Frank is a way less ethical person

there is no heterodox positional status good to be attained via sneering at Frank.)

So,

working for other people is usually a bad idea,

it’s safer!, sort of.

in that your company’s attack surface and your own attack surface are

disjoint.

but this is a gray and mediocre existence

why not just choose serfdom?

don’t you want to know what you’re capable of?

aren’t you tired of waiting for your real life to start