A few decades ago, you might be able to convince yourself to be a PMF merchant, selling whatever goods and services to the highest bidder. If you were religious, you might consider if the product was sinful, but rarely did you think further than avoiding what was prohibited.
But the internet fundamentally transformed markets, and neoliberalism stripped the market of whatever Abrahamic values had managed to make their way through the 20th century. You can no longer outsource your morality because there is no longer an institutional source of morality. The world is more malleable than ever.
Miroshnichenko says, “On the internet, what is possible becomes obligatory.” Passive market participation doesn’t exist when every click and scroll shapes the experience of others. Instead of rigid, hierarchical roles, markets have become more networked. The individual has just as much power as the firm. If the lines between the two haven’t completely dissolved yet, they will tomorrow.
The old model of “serving the market” has been replaced by a system of forced agency, where every participant shapes the market through their engagement. As institutions become softer and technology more modular, our individual influence grows exponentially, and so does our responsibility.
You are not just a PMF merchant searching for fit. Every product you ship carries a vision of the future it aims to manifest. In today’s malleable world, products create contexts and behaviors that ripple far beyond their immediate use. Without an intentional vision driving development, you end up amplifying whatever drives engagement, leaving us with nothing but the lowest common denominator: slop.
Now more than ever, the only thing that is inevitable is death. Every single technologist must take responsibility for shaping the world through their work. That moral responsibility has been forced upon you.