Silicon Valley, Sex and Meritocracy

What is a meritocracy? According to the American Heritage Dictionary it is a “system in which advancement is based on individual ability or achievement.” I would say that it is when whoever delivers what he or she is asked to deliver be it sales, patents or any other deliverable delivers and is thereby rewarded. Rewards come in many ways and forms. They can be financial but they don’t have to be; in fact they can come in the form of lax enforcement of any other group standard. Not to come right out and say that for a lot of males a just and proper reward is additional female attention and consideration.

While once upon a time the top male (not to say top dog) was determined by brawn, in the Silicon Valley start-up ecosystem the norm is for the top male to be determined more by brains than by brawn and even more than by brains by success. Success can be measured in company sales, company funding and or several other established metrics. Individuals that are successful are not just successful for themselves they are the leaders of teams that include venture capitalists, employees and may other people who follow in their wake and benefit just as much if not sometimes more. If that individual is removed or any in any way thwarted those that would have followed behind don’t get to follow and benefit. So why does it come as a surprise when their behavior should be punished that it isn’t. It just costs too many people too much. Better to look askance and pretend that it didn’t happen or is just a one time aberration.

Beyond the meritocracy the reality is an ethical quagmire. Bad as Google may be with their motto “Do no evil” which has somehow become flexible enough to have different standards in the USA and China; we now have Facebook with “Move fast and break things.” But what if what you are breaking is people? I would say men and women although recently the focus has been on women. Should that be a consideration?

Two years ago we watched Ellen Pao vs. Kleiner Perkins play out (read my blog post after the jury decision back then.) Now we have an embarrassment of riches to choose from all the way from Trump at the national level, to Travis Kalanick at Uber to as the NY Times has documented venture capitalists left, right and center. The reality however is much worse as we all know that the cases that come to light represent a tiny fraction of what is really going on out there. For most people and organizations the cost benefit analysis just doesn’t pay. But as Ashton Kutcher tweeted recently: “If we're going to fight battles they might as well be the ones to change the world.”

Some would want me to proffer potential solutions and I would even like but as you can well imagine that is a subject worth its own full length post.

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