Get Out

In a knowledge economy, the key asset is the people. There is no real intellectual property (IP), because people aren’t allowed to be property. They get to leave if they want to. There can be the illusion of IP with processes and stories that people buy into. There can be a tipping point of people that other people rely on. Internal groups might not leave, unless they leave together. It makes sense that lots of companies will therefore operate on the basis of a club mentality, where loyalty is more important than real merit. There are strong barriers to us unwinding privilege and prejudice because to do that properly, you have to invest in people who might not stay. Closed communities aren’t interested in individual meritocracy. They want the community to do well, irrespective of the community’s merit. In the same way as we personally want to do as well as we can. We don’t refer potential opportunities away from ourselves and towards people we think are better than us. The real way to reduce privilege is to reduce barriers to entry, and barriers to exit. Make it easier for people on the inside to get out, and people on the outside to get in.