Greed – Or Why Is There No Real Progress?
Today’s society is driven by greed. We want more: more money, more likes, more time. In our society, we never have enough. We always want more. I think that the more-attitude is actually also damaging to our human progress.
It is slowing down the progression of technological innovations drastically. This became especially apparent during the current crypto hype. No matter where I go, people are talking about different crypto alt coins and how they already made a fortune with it. The result is that people don’t ask themselves how they can use or invest their money wisely. They don’t invest in innovative companies, but they instead buy some coins and hope to make a fortune out of it. However, while the current crypto speculation might only be one example where money is put into systems without an actual utility, I also see selfish behavior holding us back in different other areas of life. One example is the venture capital market. For VC companies it is apparently essential to earn a return of a high multiplier. However, I have the feeling that the mere chance of a high return has become priority number one. At the same time, the risk VC companies take decreases. Therefore, in today’s entrepreneurial landscape, highly innovative companies fail as they don’t have access to the appropriate amount of funding. Or these companies don’t even form. There is not a real company going from zero-to-one – as Peter Thiel called it in his book. Founders seem to prefer chasing the big payout within a few years without working on an innovative product at all. The result is that the web and shelves of stores are jammed with useless products. Today companies are receiving VC funding by selling mixed spices.
These were my thoughts after a busy day working in a consumer electronics store. I saw many products which were only slightly – maybe 5% – better than the competition. Products which are sold only because of superior deceiving advertising and shady salesmen. I heard everyone talking about cryptocurrencies and how I must invest in them to become a billionaire. What I am missing is innovation. I miss technology which is going to solve our painly problems – and I am not talking about a QHD TV with a picture frame functionality. Maybe it’s greed which is holding us back. Probably. Most likely.
