Lies Gaming Execs Tell
Two of the biggest hypocrisies from gaming execs are:
1. Titles don’t matter
2. Juniors spend too much time wedded to specific ideas rather than outcomes, like Seniors
Of course titles matter! Of course they mean something! This hasn’t changed since Aristotle described man as a political animal.
The worst part is that everyone is in on the game and knows this. Part of the game is pretending that these things don’t matter. You’ll hear this over and over again: “I care about the work, not the title.” Yet, as I’ve sat on interview panels for smaller firms, you’d be absolutely gobsmacked at how much of the negotiation comes down to title.
I recall a story fondly where an individual spent many months negotiating because they had “Chief” in their title at a smaller startup and felt that taking a “Vice” title would be a step backward, despite a substantial pay increase. There’s no guilt in this request, as when you invest a lot of your life into work, title becomes identity. Look no further than LinkedIn, where many people describe themselves as an “Executive”. The issue isn’t the request, it’s the hypocrisy.
Similarly, one of the things people identify as a difference between Juniors and Seniors is that Juniors have an obsession with particular ideas. At the same time, Seniors are more idea-neutral, focusing on outcomes instead. Again, this seems like morally clairvoyant positioning: we should all care about outcomes more than whose idea was whose. However, when you’re a junior, one way to advance is by attaching yourself to a big idea and then riding it to success. For many gaming executives, who already secured their positions, outcomes matter because that’s what their incentive structure is tied to.
Founders also struggle with this. “Why isn’t everyone working as hard as I am?!” Well, because they don’t have 80% equity in the company.
People responding to incentives is a far stronger explanation of human behavior than many of the “experience gap” explanations for this phenomenon. As Munger said, “show me the incentives, and I’ll show you the outcome.”