Sorry, But Silicon Valley Isn’t Special Anymore
Tech has plenty of reasons to pretend it’s an industry of upstarts. That facade is crumbling.
By Conor Sen
Silicon Valley has a perception problem. Steve Jobs once said, speaking about the irreverent culture he helped create, that “it’s better to be a pirate than join the navy.” This ethos served the community well when its firms existed at “pirate scale.” But now Silicon Valley’s most successful companies have become some of the largest in the world. This culture must accept that it has become the navy, with its remaining pirates facing a choice — enlist, or walk the plank.
Perhaps no company is struggling with this reality more than Google. Founded in 1998, the company famously adopted the motto “Don’t be evil” around the year 2000. Ever since, whenever the company has run into controversy, such as its censorship disputes with China, or its recent decision to fire the author of a controversial 10-page memo, critics have lashed out at the company over its betrayal of its founding values.
But it’s not fair to hold Google, or its parent company Alphabet, to the same principles it adopted when it was a relatively inconsequential technology startup. In the year 2000, when it adopted “Don’t be evil,” Google had revenue of just…
