Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology

by Kentaro Toyama

• Measurement over meaning: Value only that which can be counted. • Quantity over quality: Do only those things that affect millions of people. • Ultimate goals over root causes: Focus narrowly on the end goal to ensure success. • Destinationism over path dependency: Ignore history and context, and take a single hop to the destination. • External over internal: Do not expect people to change; instead, focus exclusively on their external circumstances. • Innovation over tried-and-true: Never do anything that has been done before, at least not without new branding. • Intelligence over wisdom: Maximize cleverness and creativity, not mundane effort. Use intelligence and talent to justify arrogance, selfishness, immaturity, and rankism. (Rankism is abuse, humiliation, exploitation, or subjugation based on any kind of social rank.57) • Value neutrality over value engagement: Bypass values and ethics by pretending to value neutrality. • Individualism over collectivism: Let competition lead to efficiency; avoid cooperation, which breeds complacency and corruption. Any inhibition of individual expression, including compromise to support the common good, is the same as oppression. • Freedom over responsibility: Encourage more choices; discourage discernment in choosing. Any temperance of liberty, including encouragement of responsibility, is tantamount to tyranny.

What positive forces should be amplified? (And what negative ones, not?)

avuncular

No one in the US government, the World Bank, or the Gates Foundation is asking, “How do we encourage people through transformational internal epiphanies?”