You say “Founder mode”, I say binary thinking is screwing all of us {again}.

If you’re deeply entrenched in the Silicon Valley ecosystem you’ve already felt waves from Paul Graham’s latest essay founder mode. If not, well, here’s the skinny:

And now we have another fault line in the tech world. Peruse LinkedIn for #foundermode and you’ll find:

• Founders championing the idea because they feel seen

• Female tech leaders rightfully enraged, because ahem “founder mode” only appears to be available to specific demographics

• Founders leaning into “founder mode” as an excuse to continue to be complete and utter a-holes

• Leaders leveraging the platform as a means to expose their toxic founder relationships

• Content creators riding the wave to gain likes and followers

• And much, much more 

If you’re the soap opera type, grab that fuzzy blanket and curl up. The entertainment is real. Alternatively, if you’re a leader wondering what the hell to do with this information, hear me out.

“Founder mode” vs. “Manager mode” exposes the harm in binary thinking.

Right vs Wrong. Black vs White. Male vs Female. Us vs Them. Democrat vs Republican. Success vs Failure. Good vs. Bad. And now, Founder Mode vs. Manager Mode.

All examples of binary thinking. All dismissive of subtle nuances and contextual differences that define the world as we know it. All polarizing concepts that limit our ability to make progress and redefine the leadership playbook for the better.

Some say binary thinking is a biological human trait. Others claim it’s a response to fear, trauma, media exposure, and other experiences. As I’m neither a psychologist nor a scientist, I don’t feel qualified to weigh in. But I do know that it’s taken me 40 years, many run-ins with adversity, a lot of self-reflection, a couple of rock bottoms, and thousands of dollars in therapy to soften my own black-and-white thinking.

In a lot of ways binary thinking is just more comfortable. Less anxiety managing our own conflicting emotions on any particular topic. Quicker decision making. A greater sense of belonging. A simplified view of the world around us.

It’s comfortable until you can’t stop ignoring what lives between the black and white. Until grey thoughts start to consume you. Until you face an internal conflict so great that you’re forced to go to the other side.

Then the agony starts to settle in real quick. But it’s also easily forgotten when the next divisive topic shows up at your doorstep. Say, like, “Founder Mode”

The worst part?

If you read Paul’s essay from a unbiased position it’s clear that he’s not defining “Founder Mode”. He’s not claiming it as his. And, nowhere in the essay does he give permission to the already inflated egos of particular founders to enter God mode. None of that happened. Rather he’s questioning the effectiveness of traditional managerial playbooks, and inquiring if there might be a new way to guide founders of the future.

Totally reasonable.

Yet, overnight “Founder Mode” become the polarizing topic of the moment in the tech community. And I hypothesize it’s all because of this sentence:

Once binary thinking was introduced, everyone who’s ever worked in tech, heard of Y combinator, or actively follows Paul Graham, consciously or subconsciously, started to categorize themselves.

I did it. You did it. We did it. Because black-and-white was served up on a silver platter right in front of us. And. we. just. couldn’t. help. ourselves.

Allow me to bring you back to the grey.

As a reminder … You can be a visionary and a great people leader. You can give autonomy to your team members while still keeping open lines of communication with their direct reports. You can have an MBA and still rewrite the playbook on management. You can be a founder and choose to exit the managerial path. Any combination of these things can be true, because there are infinitely many ways to build a successful team / company / product, etc ...

Don’t get trapped by binary thinking. Explore “Grey Mode”. Then, create your own mode.