Kortina: Tech companies oversell moral meaning compared to Wall Street
Andrew Kortina · Andrew Kortina of Venmo and Fin on Technological Determinism and Work's Relationship to Dignity · Y Combinator · Nov 20, 2018 · at 28:23
Venmo and Fin co-founder Andrew Kortina critiques Silicon Valley recruiting narratives that promise moral impact and meaning to prospective employees.
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“My problem with the way that Silicon Valley does it is they, they've always had this, like, Wall Street is the bad guys. They're all about making money. Silicon Valley is about, you know, building the future and, you know, like, achieving, like, the American dream and, like, just being, doing no evil and, It's really like, I don't know, like maybe some people get that out of it, but I have a problem with you like selling that to other people. And telling them that you're going to be their source of meaning and you're going to enable them to like be impactful in the world. I kind of like there's a certain honesty to like the wall street. It's like, come here, work hard, make a lot of money. Like, okay, that's the deal. And these technology companies don't really frame it like that. And I just like, There's a lot of great companies, and they're building things that, like, are making the world better in a lot of ways, but I just think they oversell this feel good about yourself thing.”
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