[jerrytsai]

It feels wholesome and healthy to point to WeWork as a thinly-veiled re-packaging of office space and an illustrative example of what's not a "tech" company. With the collapse of their IPO, people are piling on heaps of schadenfreude.

But I can't help but wonder: how much of this is envy? Who wouldn't want to be perceived as inspirational and forward-thinking when seeking support for a pet business endeavor?

The choice of which words to use to market your idea, the value of being able to recruit people to fulfill the idea, the ability to persuade people to fund your idea. Isn't there some value provided by inspirational leadership?

Neumann may have duped a credulous Son, but he put WeWork in the position where it received Son's consideration.

I'm not excusing the grifting and self-enriching.

At the same time, I've seen situations where the charisma and the resolute determination of a leader makes a huge difference in how the team executes. WeWork may be a glaring example of what not to do, but it's also an example of the value of politicking-- of agilely positioning your endeavor to receive investment, both monetary and emotional.

[phillipcarter]

You betcha I'm envious of being able to sucker a bank out of a billion bucks. I'd love to pull off a con like that and then spend the rest of my life doing OSS software and traveling the world to do amazing things.

But I think it just goes to show how little merit has to do in this kind of economic system.

[fuzzfactor]

Sometimes you sucker the bank, sometimes the bank suckers you, depends on which scale beyond your own resources you can talk them into letting you operate, and where you are on a capitalistic continuum ranging from investors to consumers.

Where does it say merit or even sensibility is supposed to be a factor?

[rayiner]

> Isn't there some value provided by inspirational leadership?

It’s entirely derivative of where that leader is taking people. David Koresh was an inspirational leader. That didn’t create value, it destroyed value. (Arguably the better he was as a leader, the more value was destroyed.)

[imgabe]

> Who wouldn't want to be perceived as inspirational and forward-thinking when seeking support for a pet business endeavor?

Most people would want to be perceived as inspirational and forward-thinking because they seek to be inspirational and forward-thinking. Sociopaths are more happy to manipulate perception to suit their purposes regardless of reality.

[bogomipz]

>"Who wouldn't want to be perceived as inspirational and forward-thinking when seeking support for a pet business endeavor?"

Sure but how many would want to be be perceived as "inspirational and forward-thinking" in the short term in exchange for being perceived as little more than a greedy charlatan in perpetuity?

[saghm]

> But I can't help but wonder: how much of this is envy? Who wouldn't want to be perceived as inspirational and forward-thinking when seeking support for a pet business endeavor?

I guess I don't have the entrepreneurial spirit or whatever, because if my idea is not actually inspirational and forward-thinking, then no, I genuinely would not want to have the talent to manipulate people into thinking that it was. I don't think I'd like the person I'd become if that was my life.

[skybrian]

I don't know, it sounds pretty stressful?

Pile-ons don't imply that other people want to be that person. Shaming feels good.