Money and companies
Money is the root of all evil, sort of.
Actually, Capitalism is. Actually, Bad Capitalism is. Capitalism taken too far, too extremely. Which, to be fair, is true of many things: something to excess is, well, excessive. The key is balance.
A handful of beliefs
Although a person or a company has lots of values and ideas and beliefs driving them, there are probably only a handful that are top of mind most of the time. Let’s say three, because it’s a nice number.
Money is probably one of these three slices of the pie (chart). In a good company, or a right-thinking person (in my view), it’s not the most important thing. But it’s not unimportant either.
When the money part becomes two slices of the pie, or all three, with the other things banished, or confined to a sliver, it’s bad. It frames the person, the human, the user, the customer, as less important than the money. But if there are no people, where does the money come from?
Three lenses
Another way to look at this is three lens that are common in tech: viable, desirable, feasible.
- Viable. Product asks how easy or difficult it is to sell.
- Desirable. Design asks how easy or difficult it is to use.
- Feasible. Development asks how easy or difficult it is to make.
There’s a hierarchy here. Of course money needs to be one of the slices. Perhaps that’s only because of the (Capitalist) society we live in. But it shouldn’t be the first slice. Or the biggest slice.
Conclusion (sort of)
Focusing on money in an unbalanced way is a sure way to make sure you lose money.
Added 2023-05-24.