[graeme]

Your argument jumps around. By the time Steve Jobs returned to Apple he had near total control: yet a central point of your argument was that idealistic founders have trouble when they sign away rights.

And Job, though he did many wonderful things, had sociopathic tendencies from even before he founded Apple.

As for Facebook, Zuckerberg has maintained a very large amount of control. How does this square with your thesis that the trouble comes from VC’s?

[Bresenham]

My thesis is that for the earnest young founders mentioned in the essay who want to make the world a better place and to work on X, the trouble starts when they sign a deal with VCs, super seeds etc.

If they are not earnest, but sociopathic, then the thesis does not apply to them. The essay was about earnestness.

Tangentially - if you read the emails, texts etc. found in discovery for Brin, Schmidt etc., they are secretly entering a cartel the DOJ would break up to forbid direct recruitment of their own workers. Even the people who are doing all of the work to supposedly "make the world a better place" are being screwed by the effort, never mind people outside the company and the externalities on the way to that greater profit.

[graeme]

Yes but you specifically cited Jobs and Zuckerberg’s Facebook in support of your thesis.