Hacking Capitalism: Modeling, Humans, Computers, and Money.

by Kris Nóva

Mapping noticeable problems in an organization to your skill set can be fruitful. Because there are no shortages of problems in the tech industry.

Learn to celebrate the problems in tech because each problem represents a potential opening that you can exploit.

identifying an intersection between two things: Noticeable problems Surplus of money Where there are problems and money, there are hacking opportunities.

the more uncommon your skill set, the more valuable you’ll be toward solving a specific problem.

Lateral Movement is moving horizontally within an organization or context; peer to peer movement.

First: get in the door. Next: position yourself for success.

As you work to position yourself as effectively as possible with the intent of penetrating inner circles such as the elite, you may find that shifting your position laterally may be worth considering.

I’ve heard CEOs and executives mention that working in as many positions as possible is the best tactic for becoming a well-versed upper-level leader.

Privilege Escalation in hacking capitalism is using tactics such as influence, collaboration, broadcasting, and social engineering to gain access to elevated levels at a tech corporation; breaking into the circles of the elite.

For example, getting invited to a specific meeting can be the first step in breaching privileged resources such as decision-making.

First, identify the path that you might use and then pursue that path. A lateral move to gain a better position might be viable.

Try to understand how others got invited, and try to apply the techniques from this book toward your goal. Once you’re inside the meeting, collaborate to influence laterally across the organization.

Build trusted relationships with other leaders. Spend the time to build a strong network of trust.

There will be many ways to privilege-escalate beyond your scope of influe...

And a single friendly escalation that lifts you in the process can sometimes be as effective as escalating yourself, and it’s oftentimes cheaper.

These are the same tactics that CEOs and startup founders use when they’re exiting through a merger or acquisition. Maintain a stable posture, do your work, get paid, and exit cleanly.

For example, if you’re moving to a leadership position, you’ll need to cleanly exit your previous role.

Another example of a clean exit strategy is leaving a job on good terms. You’ll need to pay special attention to make sure that you maintain a healthy and prosperous working relationship with the company.

As long as you’re making money and you’re on board with the type of work that you’re doing, the relationship is worth maintaining. The moment you’re no longer achieving your goals, the relationship becomes counterproductive.

If you don’t continuously grow closer to your goals, the tech industry will exploit you until there’s nothing left.

Performing a single hack involves selecting a target, exploiting the target, achieving a goal, and exiting cleanly.

Your relationships will likely span many instances of a single hack. And your relationships will help you move on to bigger and more impressive hacks.

I eventually discovered that my relationships were worth more to me than any single job.

Get your foot in the door with a large company, and make as many connections as possible. Use your relationships and your knowledge to further your initiatives. Use one hack to reinforce future work.

Personally, I draw the line at intents and outcomes. As long as your intention isn’t to hurt anyone or to damage a company, I believe that a fair amount of networking is appropriate.

As it turns out, access to knowledge and expectation setting seems to be the most difficult aspect of the solving the puzzle.

These truths can be hard for many privileged people to reconcile. Not everyone is ready to admit to themselves that the economy is a zero-sum game, especially in tech.

Privileged workers in the tech industry aren’t all prepared to compete with this level of tactful direction. But this level of hypercompetition should come as no surprise to you.

These elements of human behavior come in waves. Teams will resort to tribalism during traumatic waves, and they’ll begin competing with other teams in an organization.

I think that understanding culture and influence will be most of your day job, outside of your normal day-job responsibilities. The ability to craft software is just one part of the work that you do each day.

Part of advocating for yourself in the tech industry is prioritizing your needs in your career.

If there’s one thing to take away from this book, it’s the importance of being realistic about your situation.