Man vs. Environment, PvP

Walking out of Gravity, my cousin Bruce said, “I hate man versus environment, because environment is so stupid.” For most of the movie, Sandra Bullock is the only character on screen, and she’s fighting against space, which nearly kills her over and over and puts obstacle on top of obstacle in between her and getting home. To Bruce, environment has no design or intention, it stupidly just makes whatever can go wrong, go wrong.

For me, the movie was resonant and on point because in starting a company, it does actually feel like whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, and that your environment is conspiring against you. In man vs. environment, it’s that process that makes the character want to give up before reflecting inwardly and finding the strength to overcome. And that’s the story you hear over and over from startup founders: just don’t give up.

I’d contrast that with the PvP narrative (player versus player). There was a vivid depiction of this over the past week with Nick Bilton’s take on the origin story of Twitter. It’s about who’s doing what to whom in all its lurid, devious, and ingenious glory. To Bilton, winning means outsmarting and out-cunning other people who are, at the same time, trying to outsmart you, all to get the prestige. Because someone necessarily prevails in this narrative, there’s nothing otherwise that’s particularly special or redeeming about emerging the victor.

I’m reminded of the famed Eleanor Roosevelt quote, “Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.” My less-catchy twist would be, “People discuss ideas, people discuss events, and people discuss people. Good minds know which we’re talking about at any given time.”