“Move Fast and Break Things” – sorry, but no. We should have learned that lesson from the Great Gatsby (100 years old this year).
This mantra became all the rage emanating from Facebook, and feels like it’s become the modus operandi of some of our governments.
Which has thrown an unflattering light on it.
It’s a mantra that depends on the scale of the consequences of breakage. If a swift wipe fixes it, have at it! But if the breakage is global and irreversible (or needs a lot of time and inflicts a lot of pain while reversing), maybe pause and think it through.
And consider the consequences for both breaker and breakee.
The most obvious consequence is for the breakee (the recipient of your breakage!). Seneca said “An age builds cities, an hour destroys them” (he could have been watching Gaza today), but the same is true of many things, from complex software to termination of aid to reputation.
But it also extends to the breaker. Not all breakers face the same consequences. “Zuck” in reality faced minimal costs of breaking things. But as Javaughn Spencer taught me when I talked to her in an episode of the Karmic Capitalist podcast, the consequence of your breaking things can look very different if you’re a black woman employee.
Which brings me to The Great Gatsby.
High level plot (butchered of all nuance – sorry Mr Fitzgerald). Wealthy socialite couple Tom and Daisy Buchanan move to New York. Tom has an affair with Myrtle, a garage owner’s wife. Daisy has one with newly rich Jay Gatsby. It all ends up in a mess and (spoiler alert) Daisy inadvertently kills Myrtle in a hit and run, and Myrtle’s husband shoots and kills Gatsby thinking that he drove the car. Tom and Daisy leave scot-free.
There’s an amazing description in the book about the wealthy Buchanans.
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
“Careless”
So apt. So current. The freer of cares your social position happens to make you, the more careless you’re able to be.
The practical bit for us?
Sometimes move fast and break things (in business or in tech) is OK. But not as the default. Consider consequences of breakage, and what level of certainty is right for your adventure.
If you do decide MF&BT is the right approach, be mindful of both sets of consequences I mention above. Especially if you’re the boss – don’t assume everyone has the same attitude to breakages that you may have, or that each of them expects the same consequences from you if they break things.
And consider practical alternatives. There are ways to move fast with minimal damage – run experiments rather than going in blind. Diving all in may allow you to beat your testosterone-filled chest, but experimenting may get you a better outcome.
And don’t have affairs with people much richer than you 🙂