Becoming the villain

I've joined VivaReal 3+ years ago.

In startup years, that's like 20 years. I feel ancient. Like ‘get-these-kids-off-my-damn-lawn-where's-me-cane-aw-shit-I-have-to-go-pee-AGAIN’ ancient.

And one thing I learned: Aaron Eckhart was goddamn right.

The movie is called 'The Dark Knight'. But the Dark Knight in question is not the bat dude. Otherwise the movie would be called The Batman, I mean why wouldn't you even be objective when deciding the title of the movie if you could just say 'The Bat Man', right?

They chose that name because the Dark Knight is a metaphor for Product Manager.

Boom. I know. Just absorb it. Let it sink. I'm here for ya.

I mean, I saw myself as a hero (or at least as a pretty convincing fraud or an inconspicuous impostor). We all do that. We were there working tirelessly, trying to fix whatever made sense fixing in that context, in that era. We were missionaries. We were i̶n̶c̶r̶e̶a̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶v̶e̶r̶s̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶r̶a̶t̶e̶ making the world a better place.

And now I metaphorically look around at all those metaphorical empty seats where some of the greatest PMs and engineers I've worked with once metaphorically seated. Stuff they built with great passion is now considered a waste.

Stuff that made me really proud at the time is now laughed upon. I mean, people literally roll their eyes when we talk about some stuff we shipped (and celebrated when doing so). Have you experienced someone rolling their eyes when being told about something you built? Not cool.

Should I assassinate these infidels? Should I kidnap their loves ones? Should I draw dicks on their belongings?

Perhaps I should, but only because that would be fun. Not as retaliation.

Visions change. You learn. The company learns. Nothing is static. People don't share the same context and appreciate it when judging something. Would you make the same decisions based on what you understand now? Nuh-uh.

It's okay to have visions shift. Microsoft was all about Windows and now they don't even have a dedicated Windows division anymore. Amazon tried the Firephone and saw that fail spectacularly. Instagram used to not just copy Snapchat in the past, I shit you not. So your company will change as well. It probably already has. And possibly not just once.

I know you. You are cool. I like you. Because you are always focusing on the now, and I get it: it’s hard to see your old assumptions dying and your past victories making less and less sense. You are just swamped with work, always trying to do what makes sense now, always busting your ass, always looking ahead, not so much looking behind.

And when the judgement comes, you'll be caught by surprise. What the hell was I thinking? Am I an idiot? Did anything that I ever shipped ever made any sense? Maybe mom was right: I should have gone to med school.

Sucks, right?

So I can only make you a pledge. If you ever start talking about something you built back at the day, you'll find no ill judgement from me. That's a promise.

From Dark Knight to Dark Knight.