I was doing my usual reading of various news sources when I came to this article. A man sold his company to Google and stayed on to watch it all sink. The reason why that sticks out to me is the concept of Exceptionalism.
"He pointed out four cultural problems within Google: No mission; no urgency; delusions of exceptionalism; and mismanagement."
The other three look like symptoms of the delusion of Exceptionalism to be honest. Why have a mission, a sense of urgency, or even a good corporate structure when you are so exceptional? Your company is the size of a country with the population and GDP to boot. People fight to work at your company. If all of this is true, then whatever you are doing is good, and even praiseworthy by default.
So when a big problem like AI comes in to sweep the rug under you, it seems surreal. The people running the show didn't even register the danger. Now they're responding as if the entire ship is sinking.
Even if they did know AI was rising, people like Cory Doctrow won't register how big of a deal it is. They'll say Google blundered, but AI is stupid and full of propaganda. Then they will use terms and phrases to make it sound like AI is all those things.
Google is not an exception to this insanity. Disney is going through the exact same thing. They talk about Exceptionalism and then start cutting costs hard.
The big star wars Cruise experience is losing so many customers the venues are serving one meal a day. Several 'voyages' aren't even setting off because of low turn out.
The entire idea of Exceptionalism works great for propaganda. We need to deinfluence car culture on TikTok.
EVs are making California better.
Meanwhile skyscrapers are going bankrupt because Urbanism isn't growing like it should.
Spain can't get out of its own ego, and just keeps sinking.
Think about how things are viewed from a rich white point of view. We are so exceptional that we plundered the entire world, and should feel bad about it.
Look at our amazing museum of how powerful we are, we should feel bad.
Ferrari is a great car company so the new cars must be exceptional, even though they look bland.
Artists are so important, they need to fight the AI menace.
We should even sue companies that dare touch our territory.
Meanwhile major investments are going into even small ai companies.
And a Rabbi is worried his job is in trouble because AI writes a better sermon than he does.
JK Rowling basically won against the exceptionals, and now they're trying to find ways to bow out.
The concept of Exceptionalism being a winning trait strokes the ego, but hardly wins the race. The story of the tortoise and the hare is thousands of years old, and yet we still watch it happen today. The big companies, governments, politics and others view themselves as so important, they forget to actually be that. When they see tough times it is such a shock, they act as if the world will be destroyed if they fail.
It's Exceptionalism's Defect, and I'm seeing it a lot now.
Your post is very TLDR but allow me to slap you upside the head:
No dude, we already have a word for this, and it's called "arrogance".
Google is simply arrogant. We already know why arrogance is bad. Don't go on a whole long-ass rant about some obvious shit everyone already knows by fucking up the concept and calling it a different and wrong word.
Exceptionalism means striving to be the best. It isn't the same as arrogance because it can be true. "American exceptionalism" was a real thing, not delusional arrogance. That is not at all what is going on here. This is "believing you're the best when you're not" which is arrogance, or in more extreme cases, hubris.
You're absolutely right, although I'd word it differently than exceptionalism. It's belief in one's exceptionalism without any evidence or merit. Everyone (and company) should be confident and positive. Every country should be "America First" - replacing America with their nation. But you have to constantly compare yourself to others, honestly rank your competition, and maybe even copy the other players tactics if they're ahead of you in some way. That's hard when exceptionalism is used as political propaganda and becomes embedded in the culture, because most people are stupid and latch on to fake tribalism. What you're talking about has happened to every empire in decline. The people did not want for anything outside their borders, and their nation was the center of the world. Until it wasn't.
It's at least good to hear that Google will fade away like other tech giants instead of adapting and becoming The Beast.
Maybe it's just me, but most of those links won't load. I saw the Ferrari one and the JK Rowling one works, but the other four I clicked won't load.
Whats the Spain article about?
It will not load and then load fine for me. I'm guessing I overwhelmed the server.
Spain has allowed all the new political talking points to be true.
Finally got it to load. It's brutal.
That certainly won't be abused by 95% of women.....
These people are fucking insane
They see their Exceptionalism and not their own arrogance.
The problem with Ferrari is that Luca di Montezemolo left and Ferrari ended their partnership with Pininfarina.
All you have to do is look at Ferrari's models from 2013 and look at the ones they sell right now to see the difference. The ones from a decade ago look miles better simply because there was an actual thought process behind the design, whereas the new ones are these mishmashes of lines.
Not only that, but current Ferrari disregarded the wisdom of Luca in sticking to Enzo's philosophy of making 1 less car than the demand. Now they are ramping up production, and making an SUV of all things. They are in the process of making the same mistake as McLaren, but at a slower rate simply because they are so much bigger.
I drove by a Ferrari the other day and was shocked how boring it was.