Mahmoud Rasmi

𝗜𝗻 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗢𝘄𝗻 𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲 by Mahmoud Rasmi This week's Cyb3rSyn Newsletter is a guest post by @Decafquest . It is a reflection based on the monthly 𝙏𝙚𝙘𝙝. 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙎𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙣 discussion, where we discuss books on topics including philosophy, strategy, management, and leadership. August session was all about #AI. Checkout the full post here: cyb3rsyn.com/p/in-our-own-im…

𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐧 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐃𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐩! An effective executive seeks understanding, not solutions for the problems their VPs bring them. Of course, the VP of Security will find security problems. The VP of SRE will find reliability problems and the VP of Developer Productivity will find productivity problems. They are paid to do so, and are encouraged to spend millions to "solve" them. Many will use some "quantified" metric to show that they've made progress, or even succeeded. Despite their best intentions, they hollow out the corporation from the inside out — firing the smart people who kept the revenue coming, laying off the glue people who made it all work inside the chaos. To them, the short-term increase in shareholder value justifies it all. When things go south, they simply move on to another company to repeat the same mistakes: Reductionism, Taylorism, Shareholder Primacy, and the blind chasing of Efficiency. This is the doom loop of Silicon Valley! Don't want to continue the cycle? Do we owe it to ourselves to create better workplaces — jobs that aren't soul-sucking? First, learn what NOT to do. In the messy real world, avoidance of error is a much better evolutionary strategy than imitation of success. Don't copy and repeat the mistakes of mainstream management! I made many of those mistakes and wrote a book about it. Grab a copy here: cyb3rsyn.com/products/mmm-bo… #leadership #systemsthinking #complexity #cybernetics #philosophy

This Saturday, Mahmoud Rasmi (@Decafquest) will lead a conversation around the billion dollar idea that's behind Silicon Valley's commercial success. (If you want to join the conversation, tickets for the Tech. Leaders Salon is in the post below 👇🏾) Yes, we are going to be discussing Mimetic Theory and the man behind it, Rene Girard. I was an employee at PayPal for over 11 years and during the early days I spent a lot of time reading and learning about its founders aka 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐏𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐟𝐢𝐚! The mafia member that fascinated me the most was the contrarian, Peter Thiel. Like many others, it was Thiel’s interviews that first led me to the works of René Girard, a French historian, philosopher of social science and interdisciplinary thinker who also turns out to be the originator of Mimetic Theory. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼𝗿𝘆? Most of what we desire is mimetic or imitative, not intrinsic. Humans learn through imitation. We desire what others desire - be it a Rolex, iPhone, Tesla, Gucci Bag, a big home with a pool, a fancy cruise or that expensive vacation to Europe. Girard proposed that all desire is merely an imitation of another’s desire, and the desire only occurs because others have deemed something as worthwhile. But, we are mostly unconscious about this phenomenon! Interested in how to exploit this theory? Links to my three-part post are also in the post below. #psychology #mimesis #entrepreneurship

This week's Cyb3rSyn Newsletter is a guest post by @Decafquest. Mahmoud shares his reflections from our May Tech Leaders Salon discussion on Daniel's Coyle's book, 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐞. Checkout the full post here: cyb3rsyn.com/p/reflections-t… #leadership #culture

The 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧 is a year-long reading and discussion series exploring technology, strategy, culture, and philosophy. This month we'll be discussing Daniel's Coyle's book, 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐞. ✅ Building Safety ✅ Sharing Vulnerability ✅ Establishing Purpose The session is free for all the community-tier members of Cyb3rSyn Labs: cyb3rsyn.com/upgrade You can buy tickets to join us the rest of the year (and get access to past months' session recordings) here: cyb3rsyn.com/products/the-te… Checkout the preparatory notes by @Decafquest here: notes.decafquest.com/culture… #leadership #culture