Silicon Valley’s self-image elevates entrepreneurship as society’s universal problem-solving model

Evidence

This was Google Zeitgeist, Google’s exclusive, all-expenses-paid attempt to bring together the “great minds of our time” for the benefit of the invited guests—mostly advertising executives, the bread and butter of Google’s business model. I was one of perhaps five academics, but the entertainment industry and non-profits were well represented (I was very excited to meet Guy Oseary, Madonna’s manager). The theme was “one of us, all of us,” with a strong undercurrent of the buzzword du jour, social entrepreneurship. We heard repeatedly that the values of technology, Silicon Valley, and innovation could help solve the problems of society at large. As Schmidt said, “This model of investment, innovation, and overcoming failure is necessary. If we’re going to achieve greatness in the twenty-first century, and I believe we will, we have to start with some Silicon Valley thinking.” He stated that “ultimately, this world will be owned by an entrepreneur.” — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 713

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on Silicon Valley ideology and tech solutionism (e.g., Evgeny Morozov’s critique of technological fix-alls). — connects to: Silicon Valley’s ideology fuses technological determinism with libertarian individualism. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 118; Silicon Valley DIY ideology fuses anti-corporate distrust with personal agency — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 127; Silicon Valley startups function like cults and clans demanding total identification — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 183 (+15 more)
• SHARE: Schmidt’s ‘this world will be owned by an entrepreneur’ line is a sharp quotable for anyone following tech-utopian discourse.

Broader Connections

• Silicon Valley’s workplace utopia narrative concealed toxic corporate cultures #qualifies (0.85) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 504
• Neoliberal entrepreneurship rhetoric masks a reality of collective corporate effort #qualifies (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 306
• Tech culture’s self-image conceals a closed system of privilege centered on profit #qualifies (0.85) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 647
• Silicon Valley escape fantasies abandon politics while hiding their own power. #exemplifies (0.85) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 191
• Web 2.0 repackaged American mythologies like rags-to-riches entrepreneurship into startup culture #expands (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 22
• Silicon Valley framed the Arab Spring as proof of the internet’s political power #exemplifies (0.80) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 261
• Silicon Valley misappropriates Schumpeter’s creative destruction to justify permissionless innovation #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 154
• Neoliberal self-entrepreneurship destabilizes the fixed boundaries of personhood #qualifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 418