Jargogled Impressions.

I have a working hypothesis that we are all born in the middle of the spectrum of macro/micro and all our lifelong efforts culminate into pushing us to one extreme versus the other. The more you shift to the right (macro) the bigger platform/leverage you get to make a dent in the universe. And the more your focus and attention shift to the left, the farther you enter the rabbit hole of individual stories, microcosmic matters of relevance, and of a detailed life. There is no right or wrong way to proceed particularly because there is no obligation for us to do anything for this world. A good example to take would be the ones that relinquish the social/material world to become monks / ascetics versus the social media influencers whose sine de quin is to oblige the macro world. But a better example would be in the professional realm where the more you are focusing your attention on the biggest things in the world – the biggest challenges, the biggest markets, the biggest opportunities, the more your sphere of influence grows.

Case in point: Elon Musk and his goal to work across the 5 biggest areas of impact across sustainable energy (SolarCity), AI(Tesla), space exploration (SpaceX, Boring Company), genetic engineering (NeuraLink), and internet (PayPal/Twitter). Of course, you need intellect and audacity to be successful and there’s a spectrum here too – but the idea is that your effort can push you in this direction and further and further along as you become successful. Much like Elon’s master plan with introducing electric cars – a virtuous, self-feeding loop.

My hypothesis is that where you focus your efforts and how you do it drives you to the extremes. And that the accepted contemporary bias is to constantly push ourselves towards the right (macro). We love folks who think big, dare to dream big. We adore personalities with larger-than-life statures. And we are only just curious of the monks and the hyper-individualistic ascetics of the world who are chasing spirituality and a sense of self-attainment.

Maybe our evolutionary intuitions subconsciously goad us to bring up these doyens of macro thinking because it is collectively better for humanity and so getting them to be successful is better for humanity too. Musk wants us to be a space faring civilization – his frame is civilizational, and his influence timeline is millennia versus decades or even centuries. Much better for humanity than someone who just wants to sell sugar water perhaps.

There’s fractality in what success is though. That is, what looks successful from a distance shares its success as you probe deeper. So, my framing of micro/macro does not mean that attention to detail does not matter. On the contrary, doing things that don’t scale help us grip the details while maintaining a line of sight on the bigger/expansive destination. I suppose those who learn to strike the right balance between being a willing daydreamer and being a ruthless/myopic operator are those that find the rhythm necessary to succeed.

Coming back to the framing – I think we can look at it as the CEO – Employee spectrum too, wherein the CEO has a lens that cuts across the organization and each of its distinctive functions while the employees are focused on driving forward with their narrow sets of responsibilities. I came across this interesting video of Steve Jobs berating consultants owing to the fact that consultants don’t “own” their recommendations, develop scar tissue to learn from their mistakes which professional superstars do when they spend >2 years on a single area of expertise. The ownership mentality is critical – it’s basically skin in the game, which consultants typically lack other than when it comes to their brand value and their reputation. After they have assuaged these, they are free to dust off their recommendations and move on. This sense of ownership is what differentiates a CEO and an employee too – through compensation, level, prestige, market expectations etc. a CEO is by definition owning the direction of this giant ship (the organization). And so, it seems that ownership helps us get this wide-rim view of the thing at hand. Even at the employee level, if we demonstrate an ownership mentality, it widens the aperture of our field of operations ever so slightly. Keep doing it and you become an SME, keep doing that and you open yourself up for opportunities (including blind opportunities), essentially paving the path to moving towards the right. An entrepreneur fast tracks this movement as she moves from being an employee to being an owner. She conquers her imposter syndrome to think bigger. She may fail in the process and eventually come back – but she comes back like astronauts coming back from their stint in space – with a view of what the world looks like at a distance. Now its up to them to do what they can with this information.

Likewise, as I stated at the beginning – we all start somewhere in the middle of this micro/macro spectrum when we are born. Our circumstances and the opportunities presented to us push towards one extreme versus the other. Someone born with access and privilege can accelerate this movement significantly. Others who are stuck in the hamster wheel of poverty and social divide end up decelerating this progress.

The funny thing is, with social media this divide comes up more often than not. Across the different social media and the purposes, they serve – Facebook (social), Instagram (aspirational), Snap (FOMO), Twitter (Intellectual), the divide in how those who have “arrived” versus those that haven’t becomes self-evident and crystal clear. Until someone like Elon Musk comes along attempting to break this stereotype and indulge in petty mockery, micro harassments, etc. in service to the ego masters. Then the sharing information playbook gets thrown out the window as memes take over. I wonder perhaps that the intention here from the world’s pre-eminent entrepreneur is just that – challenge conventional playbooks as power gets conflated with popularity in the meme economy. Or put another way (loosely) – shift from being Howard Roark to becoming Gail Wynand.