[yawnxyz]

This is an interesting article that puts words into what I've been feeling and observing for a long time — at first the transition into Academia from tech felt this way (e.g. wow everyone's programmed to follow the PhD track!) to moving to Australia (wow everyone's so rule abiding and pattern matching; anyone who's attempting to "lead" gets cut down; there's even a term here for it called "tall poppy syndrome)

But lately with all the layoffs it's kind of put a spotlight on tech startups and VCs. These are the smartest group of people who are supposed to escape mimetic behavior... but how do you explain all the VCs investing in me-too scooter companies or BNPL companies or yet-another-meal/grocery-delivery-service, who are now all absolutely wrecked by higher interest rates because these can only really thrive (or even survive) in low to no-interest rate environments? Why would these ever be $1B+ companies in the first place??

Sorry for the rant, it's just that the more you look, the more even the "smartest people in the room" are just performing rituals and it's disheartening and depressing.

[krisoft]

> But lately with all the layoffs it's kind of put a spotlight on tech startups and VCs. These are the smartest group of people who are supposed to escape mimetic behavior...

Well. That is your problem. You bought the marketing. There is no reason to think that VCs and startups are the “smartest group of people”.

[dgb23]

We tend to learn through imitation more than we think. Humans lean on Theory of Mind: when we see others do a task we assume that it’s the right way of doing things, so we adopt their incantations.

Generally this is not something that should be disheartening. It’s an incredibly efficient learning method that spreads cultural advancements quickly.

Have you ever tried to train a dog? They try to understand you, but they don’t imitate. You have to meticulously motivate them through each step of a behavior and mark it consistently with commands. It’s fun, but requires a lot of patience.

With humans you can just demonstrate something and they can imitate complex workflows in just a session or two.

The master said to the apprentice: “I’ll only show you this once, so watch carefully!”

[lynx23]

Thank you, I've just learnt something this morning, almost before the first sip of coffee...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome