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.
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.