Lenny Rachitsky argues that Silicon Valley's glorification of dropout founders and abrasive behavior is bad advice. Founders who show up disrespectful or ignorant of basic etiquette can cost people their jobs and destroy trust. Treating others with humility and respect is a learned skill that actually makes deals happen.
Chapters
You have a lot of really young people, maybe they're dropping out of school super early. They show up in ways encouraged by Silicon Valley to be abrasive on purpose because there's kind of this vibe of if your technology is so good, then you don't need to do these things. That narrative plus age plus background is leading people, like, they really just don't know or have any appreciation for how they're showing up. If you're showing to someone, be like, hey, I want to do a business deal with you. A lot of people might lose their jobs over it. Or, I want to do a business deal with you and I need your data. You want to be able to show up with respect, humility, and in a way where people like, okay, this is someone I can work with and trust. And that ultimately is what etiquette is about. Once you know the rules, making decisions to break them, fine. But simply being ignorant to, like, how the world expects you to show up in different contexts in basic ways, I think is just honestly a missed skill.