A culture without heroes

I read this post on Twitter. It hit a nerve because this is one of the key value differences between India and the West—maybe even the East and the West. Read it carefully. It is a gem.

We broke Modi’s ego by not voting for BJP in Bengal, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra. This is not the first time we have done this; similarly, we have broken the ego of many big personalities by not supporting them in the past. A long time ago, the ego of the Hindu king Dahir of Sindh was shattered by the Hindu kings of then Afghanistan and Rajasthan. Dahir wrote for help, but no one came. Dahir had a lot of ego about his valor and was killed. Now, it is a different matter that after that, the continuous decline of Hindus started in Sindh, and today Afghanistan is a completely Islamic nation. In the same way, we broke the ego of Prithviraj Chauhan by not supporting him during Mohammad Ghori’s invasion. The people of Mewar also had a lot of ego about their bravery. When Khilji surrounded Mewar, no one from the entire Rajputana supported them, Rawal Ratan was killed by deceit, and Padmavati had to commit jauhar with 16,000 women. Padmavati also had a lot of ego about her beauty, which was shattered. When Rana Sanga had captured Lodhi, the dacoit Babur was called to break their ego. In the battle, no one supported Rana Sanga, and his general was killed along with thirty thousand soldiers. Sanga’s ego was shattered. But the Lodhis had to endure the Mughal slavery, temples were destroyed, women were looted by the Mughals, but Sanga’s ego was shattered. The Marathas were very powerful; they had decimated the Mughals. They also had a lot of ego. When the Mughals were defeated, Abdali was called from Afghanistan to stop the infidels, and armies were set up in the battlefield of Panipat. Abdali’s army kept receiving supplies, but no one sent supplies to the Marathas, as their ego had to be shattered. The Marathas kept fighting on empty stomachs, kept dying, and were defeated. There is no house in Maharashtra where a son wasn’t martyred, but the ego was shattered. Countless times, we have shattered the egos of our own by not supporting them at the right time, and we will remove Modi from power as well. Even if we have to take help from the Goris, Mughals, Abdalis, or even Italy, Pakistan, and mortgage the country in their hands… We will break Modi’s ego, and in the future, we will break Yogi Ji’s ego too. Because we are only fit to live under the slavery of foreigners, non-believers, leftists, etc. Remember, we also broke Atal Ji’s ego and then endured ten years of suffering, but we are habitual of forgetting… We will break Modi’s ego. Jai Hind

https://x.com/JoshiGargiGoyal/status/1805463176156188940

This has been my typical experience, too. People will only support you once you have ‘made it’. In fact, there will be attempts to pull down someone who seems to have too much power.

This creates a weird trade-off.

My theory: We fear absolute power. If we fear too much power in the hands of one person, we pull down anyone who gets close to achieving it. This means no one can take the boldest of bets like Elon Musk. It also means no one can claim that tobacco is safe for pregnant women.

The easiest way to see this is from stock market circuit breakers that are employed much more frequently than their US counterparts.

In the US, the Iron Man is supposed to be egoistic. Ayn Randian thinking that they can act arrogantly if they are creating enough value.

But in India, even the superheroes will display more humility than they need to. You may have created immense value for the society, but if you feel you are above everyone else, you would be pulled down by the incompetent crowds.

The entrepreneurial side of me has wished for an American environment for a long time. I would often know clearly that many people around me are duds with certificates, lazy, incompetent or straight-up leeches. But I cannot press my competence, hard work, or the value created directly. It will be seen as arrogant even though I might say this in the most humble, matter-of-the-fact way. Anyone who has built anything knows this to be true.

My citizen side doesn’t want anyone, especially a politician, to have too much power like a typical American President.

—-

This dilemma needs to break if India has to become a superpower. I do not know the answer. If you do, tell me.

I will figure this out. Our heroes must be stronger, and our collective judgement of ego vs. competence must be clear. We have to send in reinforcements to our chosen heroes. Abandoning them in battle is the most cowardly thing to do.

I don’t think Modiji is being egoistic at all. I think he is just hastily achieving his desired outcomes—which are also the outcomes his core voters want. But if this is the example India sets, no one would want to be a hero.

We basically got him to clean up our mess for ten years and then tried to discard him. I am sure such stuff exists in our mythology. We need to change that. A person’s PoW should not go away, no matter what.

Like a hero owes to the society, the society owes to it’s heroes as well. If society doesn’t deliver, our heroes will rather play in a different team where they are valued.

The Brown Ceiling

The brown ceiling is brown.

Today I was talking to some web3 / startup folks in SF and I can finally articulate a theory that’s been brewing in my mind for the last two months.

Indian folks living in the Western countries are the ones to discriminate against other Indians who live in India.

My initial thought was this insecurity. But I don’t think it is.

This is their Stockholm Syndrome that you become what you were fighting against. In their quest to fit into their circles in places like US, they will start looking at Indians living in India with a lens of superiority.

I know many founders/operators who have complained about being treated differently coz they live in India.

Now that they are here, they will do the same thing to a newer lot of founders coming in from India.

—-

This is pretty crazy to my mind. I don’t think they know they are doing it. Or maybe they do and the idea is that something is missing in that culture that you must change completely.

The guy who found an underappreciated unpolished dev from a tier-2 town and fought for him is the one shitting on a founder who has more users than most of their clients without raising a single $.

—-

When I say I think Indian culture is under threat, it is hard to explain but this is what I’m talking about.

You know that one person you thought was your friend but suddenly got a great job and started treating you differently when you visited their home?

This is the moment hyper-capitalism and hyper-individualism begin.

This is just the first attempt. I think I have a year’s worth of research + thinking + observation to nail this down.

But once I do, I will plug this leakage in our culture.

—-

Side: that is why i respect people like Sandeep. He was and is always a heart guy more than a mind guy.

—-

Side: That is why there is no Indian mafia in the US. Fuck, there is no Indian mafia in the US in any vertical. Is there? Shittt, this is a big deal. I know why it is not. You can’t even do well because you play a mediocre game with values conflicting with your own.

Idea: Maybe it is time to create this mafia. Handpick those who get it. It be great because it will look like a gathering of weirdos who aren’t Bn$ founders or great FAANG employees. These are empaths who know it all but haven’t coordinated.

We should question all success metrics

This comes from Metrics of success determine the culture.

In terms of the Indian culture, we know we should disown the success metrics driven by consumerism.

We should definitely not consider opulence as a marker of status. The number of cars, how expensive the shoes are, or how big the private yacht is should not weigh in on the person’s ideas, knowledge, or opinions.

What should be revered is a person’s curiosity, their humility, their integrity, their hard work, and their risk-taking ability. We should value a person based on how much they have contributed to society. And even punish those who are actively adding negative value to the society at large. The top management of companies like Coca-Cola should not be admired for their money. Their wealth is as ill-gotten as that of someone selling an addictive substance. It is net negative for the society.

On a macro level, we should question metrics like GDP, and arrive at a wealth metric instead of a spending metric. We know strong economies are created on production, not consumption. Consumption was a narrative that was sold to us. We want a wealthy population, not a debt-ridden one.

I would go to ridiculous amounts of lengths to question every metric right from peer reviews on research to cultural success markers like ‘dominance mindset’.

We should also understand that we have to move beyond the material plane. There has to be a time when the entire population is engaged in intellectual and spiritual pursuits. We should not just aim to catch up but leapfrog to the next dimension (New Worlds – three planes).

New Worlds – three planes

The USA is the epitome of success in the material world. They have conquered the art of making great things. Right from roads to rockets, they have done it all with style.

But we live on three planes – material, intellectual and spiritual.

If the point of technology is to free our time for more creative pursuits, we cannot think that betting on Wall Street or making a new cereal or making another Instagram dance video is the kind of potential we want to achieve.

Next frontier is the intellectual and spiritual worlds. We are yet to understand anything about how our minds work. We are yet to put together basic thought patterns of human beings. We are yet to understand our own emotions. And on a spiritual plane, we have, it seems stopped at the Greek Philosophers and the ancient philosophies of the East as our last significant work.

We have to develop intellectual frameworks that are as good as the autobahn, we have yet to achieve interpersonal communication with the ease with which many in the animal kingdom operate effortlessly.

This is not to say that we have completely conquered the material world. We still have a lot to learn about our own planet and its systems. But we have conquered the material plane to the certainty that most people will have a basic set of resources to live a decent life with the advent of AI and robotics.

Metrics of success determine the culture

Whoever determines the success metrics controls the steering wheel of the civilization. This is linked to Lagaan Syndrome.

I was sitting with an American friend and we were discussing about one young man in our group who wouldn’t drink, smoke, go clubbing. He would instead sleep early and wake up early. For future reference, let us call this guy Jared.

The American friend said, “He is a worker bee”. The immediate lack of coolness was highlighted.

But this young man has been traveling all over the world, has a great job, is friends with almost everyone around, and is a genuinely good human being. All of that wasn’t in consideration because is it uncool in this modern culture.

As a community builder, we have to understand that the top measures of success that we highlight become drivers of culture. If it is a community of musicians, the number of hours of practice or how many tickets are sold would attract very different kinds of musicians.

In terms of Indian culture, I think we need to question everything. (We should question all success metrics)

Lagaan Syndrome

When we were young, a friend and I would play crickets every free minute of the day. Once upon a time, we got good at it. When we started playing with teams from other buildings in our area, our team tend to beat some of the strongest.

One day we arrived at a rival’s pitch. It was a leg-side box pitch, which, in Mumbai gully cricket terms meant a specific hook could give you immense power and a specific kind of fielding was needed for defense.

Being the overconfident lot, we thought we would beat them. I don’t think I will ever forget that match. The humiliation was total. I started practicing my leg-side for months after that. Of course, I couldn’t hope to beat them because the conditions were against the style I’d practiced. I lost motivation. In the hindsight, I believe the cost of winning that match was too high for me to pay.

This is what I call Lagaan Syndrome. When the game is set by someone else and we are trying to beat them, it is hardly a matter or skill or motivation. It is mostly a cost-benefit trade-off. And in most cases, it is not worth the cost.

Lagaan is a Bollywood movie where a bunch of Indian villagers play the British soldiers in a match of cricket (before cricket was introduced to Indians). They practice, learn, jugaad and of course, since it is a Bollywood movie, they win.

Lagaan syndrome is when i see Indians (or any other culture) “aspiring” to beat their rulers at their own game.

There is a testosterone rush in it I think.

But in most cases, it is not worth the benefit.

Instead, we should have invited them to play Kabaddi. That is how we beat Lagaan Syndrome.

By questioning every game, every success metric, and every goal laid in front of us. If it doesn’t align with our internal, we do not need to bet on it.

In community building, Metrics of success determine the culture.

100% ownership

There are no other problems in the world. There is no poverty, violence, war, or wealth inequality.

If we were to dig deep enough, the smallest unit of all of these problems would be made up of only one thing: the principal-agent problem.

The more networked and dependent we become, the more these problems crop up.

If everyone took complete ownership of whatever they were doing, all of these problems would disappear.

In a complex world like ours, these risks are divided and often arbitrated at personal and macro levels.

And yes, until we go to the Charkha lifestyle, this is not going to be solved completely.

But, but, just in our day-to-day personal and work lives, if we can start being and holding people accountable for 100% ownership of whatever they’re doing, regardless of external factors, it would train our brains and social structures would align for this kind of a world.

Philosophical changes like this can start from a work culture that rewards taking ownership and punishes dependencies.