June 26, 2021

Everyone’s Job is World Building | Alex Danco on Infinite Loops with Jim O’Shaughnessy

Check out Infinite Loops Episode Page and Show Notes

Key Takeaways

• The biggest difference between the physical and digital world is the reorientation of value from production scarcity to demand/attention scarcity
• ‘world building’ – you can’t speak to every customer all of the time but you can create an environment for the community to be connected and explore new challenges
  • “The ability to create new challenges on the internet is unlimited” – Alex Danco
  • Middle management are the building blocks for world creating – the intermediary by constructing a reality that does not literally produce anything, maintaining the meaning to work
• The Office is a great example of the comprehensive cynical theory of management and world-building to create a sustainable and meaningful workplace
  • Michael, Dwight, and Andy are in charge of ‘world building’ and perpetuating meaning to themselves and Dunder Mifflin
• Status is relative to the nature of the ‘world’ you reside in
  • Rich is not always interesting or unique, value and cultural relevancy is detached from reality but exclusively attached to your world

Intro

• Alex Danco (@Alex_Danco) works on the Shopify money team specializing in systems and crypto
  • Check out Alex’s website and weekly newsletter
• Host – Jim O’Shaughnessy (@jposhaughnessy)
• Alex Danco and Jim O’shaghnessy discuss scarcity vs abundance in physical and digital worlds, ‘world building’, and management as it relates to The Office
• Books Mentioned:
  • The Organization Man – William Whyte
  • The Gervais Principle – Venkatesh Rao
  • The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class – Thesis by Alex Danco

Digital vs Physical World

• The skills in the digital world are much different than the physical world
  • thoughts and actions are not linear in the digital world
• Physical capital can be defined as clear inputs and outputs using natural resources, factory capacity, production, etc.
• Reorientation of value from production scarcity to demand/attention scarcity
  • The relationship with the consumer is more valuable than the product

Early Internet & World Building

• What are you selling in a world of abundance?
  • Everyone’s job is in sales if you know what you’re selling
  • Sales in scarcity vs sales in abundance
  • ‘world building’ – you can’t speak to every customer all of the time but you can create an environment for the community to be connected and explore new challenges, consistently finding meaning
  • “The ability to create new challenges on the internet is unlimited” – Alex Danco
• Eternal September – early internet trends were based around the collegiate schedule starting in September when a ton of new members would join different forums and servers
  • The existing members often got frustrated with the flood of “noobs”, there was often a large learning curve to understanding the cultural norms of the service
  • Twitter is a great modern day example, hostile to new users but a great platform once established
• Conditions for why the digital world initially succeeded:
  • The internet was fairly difficult to access
  • There was an abundance of challenges to immediately participate in and explore
  • The intelligence barrier was high enough for a select group to get a head start on internet cultural fluency
• Ebay and Beanie Babies created the transition online, the first opportunity for normal folks to incorporate a commercial online platform into their interest
  • Interest and intent, first step to organic value growth from within a unique ‘world’

World Management

• Middle management‘s main role is to be creative in the ‘world building’ process
  • Hard to define necessity on the balance sheet, but necessary to maintain the ‘worlds’
  • This refers to maintaining the self-perpetuating meaning for the internal and external worlds
  • The modern term is “Product Manager”
• The Organization Man – William Whyte
  • All organizations that survive are built on three layers:
    • Bottom Layer – the majority of workers are doing ‘literal’ things, producing
    • Executive Layer – ‘literal’ roles and responsibilities with real stakes involved
    • Middle Management Layer – intermediate by constructing a reality that does not literally produce anything, maintaining the meaning to work, product, or service

World Management in The Office

• The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class – Thesis by Alex Danco derived from the show, The Office
  • “The higher you ascend the ladder of the Educated Gentry class, the more you become Michael Scott” – Alex Danco
  • The Gervais Principle – Venkatesh Rao
    • Goes through The Office as a comprehensive cynical theory of management:
      • The losers: Stanley, Pam, Daryll
      • The sociopath: David Wallace, Jan, Ryan, Jim
      • The clueless: Michael, Dwight, Andy
    • Coded language:
      • Posture talk: spoken by the clueless to anyone, including to themselves to ground their own reality
      • Baby talk: everyone who talks to the clueless, make sure they don’t go off the rails
      • Internal talk: the self-supporting language amongst the losers to get through the day
      • Power talk: language amongst sociopaths about information gathering or retroactive deniability
      • Straight talk: language with no code, senior management to front-line workers
  • Michael, Dwight, and Andy are in charge of ‘world building’ and perpetuating meaning to themselves and Dunder Mifflin

Defining World Status

• Difference between world-relative high status and societal high status
  • cultural or ‘worldly’ relevance
  • Is a Subaru higher status than a Cadillac? Depends on the world you live in.
  • Rich is not always interesting or unique, value and cultural relevancy is detached from reality but exclusively attached to your world
  • “People beg for the acknowledgment of the meaning they’ve created” – Alex Danco

Infinite Loops : business, community, digital media, internet, Language, management, the office
Notes By Drew Waterstreet