EXPLOIT is the darker side of BET. It’s played when we take all the rewards from the risk without considering other costs. It’s easy to get away with because the hero who cunningly risks it all to return with treasure from the dragon of chaos is the oldest, most profound story we know. It’s the narrative underlying every version of the scrappy inventor in the garage or lab who becomes a billionaire. We revere people who achieve great creative works so much that we give them a pass for personal failings we don’t give ourselves or anyone else.
All progress requires sacrifice from the inventor and the team that brings it to life. That’s easy enough to see. But there’s a hidden sacrifice as well: adventure and innovation are possible only when supported by robust order built over generations. But then, innovation disrupts the old order of things, leaving many people displaced or discarded. Yes, old ways must make way for the new:
- Factories replaced humans with robots, and robotic cars will replace millions of paid drivers soon enough;
- Code replaced most clerks in the last couple of decades, and AI will likely replace as many knowledge workers in the next few;
- New theories and information will displace our current ones, leaving them to appear as pre-scientific as blood-letting and leeching look today.
After we’ve made an arduous but successful journey wrangling chaos into a new order, it’s easy – even expected – to take on Thorin’s view at the end of The Hobbit; we defend our right to the hard-won treasure against all outside claims and externalities. But if the spoils of conquest only flow to the top – merited or not – all-out war comes in the end—a sad truth Thorin learned soon enough.
A good creative leader reaps the rewards of creative work for themselves and others. But great leaders share credit and proactively tend to those who are inevitably disrupted by progress.