Why did gray suits go from dependable to charismatic? The issue of ownership was brought up in the book by Khurana. Major chunks of companies were bought up by institutional investors. The new American hobby was trading stocks. The changes meant that outsiders cared about who was running companies.
When CEOs were less visible in society, they were able to be bland. blandness was not an option because the public owned their firms.
Thematic performance is more important than ever. The founder-CEO in Boston said that his job as a CEO was to sell to everyone. The first thing you need to do is convince people to join the company. You have to sell to people.
It's important that investors are included. Tech companies rely on investment capital for a long time. A founder-CEO in San Francisco said that to do the role well you need to build a persona. It's often the case that investors are attracted to founders that have a special charisma or personality.
The social pressures that compel such performances are understood by the founding fathers.
The need to be special is intensified by the uncertainty of the rewards. With time and money, the companies will become fat, pearly unicorns. Early on they have little that makes them stand out. There's no money. There isn't a profit. "I don't want to discount the idea." You don't have much to evaluate other than what school the person went to and where they worked. It's like shamans fall back on personal qualities to convince investors that they can do something amazing.
During an online Q&A hosted by WIRED, Jack Dorsey talked about intermittent fasts on a number of occasions, including on a number of websites. He said that he has a lot more energy and focus, feels healthier and happier, and his sleep is deeper.
It might be possible. His self-denial isn't all laser focus and cozy nights according to the scientific literature. Studies that test the effects of intermittent fasts on sleep and cognitive function show either no change or deficits.
The CEO-shamans are putting on a show. People around the world know that self-denial and other shamanistic practices cultivate power. Tech executives are likely to draw the same conclusions. It's possible that part of their decision to engage in shamanistic practices is due to a genuine desire to be special.
Humans are good performers. We pay close attention to the identities that are esteemed. We are guided by psychological processes and thenlude ourselves with justifications. It is not easy to specify the crucial ways in which the world is not a stage. If CEOs are like the rest of us, their personas are changed for fame and then rationalized afterwards.
The result is the same regardless of the motivation. Tech executives look a lot like the witch doctors of the past, like biohack and transhumanism. As long as people are searching for miracles, others will compete to look like miracle-workers, reviving ancient and time-tested techniques. Shamanism is not a lost form of wisdom. As humans turn to each other to produce the extraordinary, it is a reflection of human nature.
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