> nobody pulling the strings in this industry gives a shit about anybody, or really anything other than increasing their available capital

This is true for every industry, group, non-profit etc…there are no organizations not fully captured by monetary transactions and hoarding capital.

Absolutely false. I’m not young, and I’ve worked in many different industries. Once you get away from for-profit businesses controlled by third party investors, that could not be further from the truth. Having monetary motives doesn’t mean you only have monetary motives, or lack willingness to address your industry’s ecosystem, employees, and the communities you touch. Believe it or not, some people that run companies have pride, ethics, and red lines they will not violate to pump up their valuation. I left software because considering anything other than money is anathema to its business culture. I’ve worked extensively with people in arms manufacturing and even they are more motivated by business ethics than anybody I’ve encountered from the SV software scene in a fucking decade. For an industry that was started by people that wanted to make money by solving people’s problems using innovation and cutting edge tooling, this is a pretty pathetic state of affairs.

I was a military officer for 17 years, the only thing that matters is your unit/wing/program office is your budget. The only thing more important is readiness and guess what the main thing that effects…your budget

I’ve run mutual aid cooperatives and whatever you try to do will be overrun by private equity and your market will be closed and the people who show up will be flighty and noncommittal

I currently am ED for a non-profit that I will not allow to be used for profit making - almost 100% of the people who ask to volunteer or show up do it for their own promotion or to jumpstart their product it’s maddening the number of times I have to say no.

I am the founder of the 150,000 person ultramarathon subreddit and I’ve only found two (2) moderators in the last 15 years that aren’t trying to promote something for money.

There are no organizations that escape this because at the root level you can’t find more than a literal handful of people who aren’t in it for the money - even if thats not their direct reason it’s usually a secondary reason

Even “monks” go out and write books and buy fancy cars

There doesn’t exist in my daily survey of social organizations ANY, and I mean there isn’t any single organization, that does what it says it does without trying to make a profit in some way.

> I’ve run mutual aid cooperatives and whatever you try to do will be overrun by private equity and your market will be closed and the people who show up will be flighty and noncommittal

… yeah

> Even “monks” go out and write books and buy fancy cars

You are a bitter, cynical edge lord that only sees the worst in the best people. Ironically, I’ll bet you think you’re the most rational observer you know.

How you are describing the world you see says a lot more about the way you see than it says about the world. Later.

There are people who genuinely want to help others because they realize it is the right thing to do. Also applies to organizations governed by such people.

I used to take my truck to Larry Roberts of Roberts auto. He’s a neighbor and friend and did oil changes and basic stuff. Larry closed up shop cause he can’t work on modern cars and doesn’t have the tools or staff to handle anything more than basics for cars older than the 00s.

Larry is great but he’s not even relevant to the discussion because you might as well be describing a DIY or hobby shop.

None of the people or organizations you describe are relevant to how the world works, they are temporary outliers with limited impact for a brief period

Even then, Larry didn’t work for free and wasn’t running it out of the goodness of his heart. He did it for money

The only people I know doing shit that isn’t for money are the people that actively work on the trails that I walk on in Northern Virginia and guess what, they work on them so they can have nice trails not because somebody else is going to use the trail.