The War between Creators and Proclaimers

Feb 2, 2024

The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.

~Thucydides

Viktor (left) and Jayce (right) from the series Arcane

You might have grown a profound distaste towards either the hesitant or the rash. Viktor(left) and Jayce(right) - framed to represent examples in this discussion, illustrating the classic divide between thought and action. Dare to think, and the dare to act persona. The same dynamic, is spilled from classrooms to corporate halls. A thick-sculled brat immediately claims the meticulous calculations of the fraidy-cat. In the bustling corridors of a modern AI company, where the air is thick with the hum of servers and the clatter of keyboards, a microcosm of our broader society unfolds. Here, the architects and the heralds of technology engage in a dance as old as time, embodying the ancient dichotomy between creation and proclamation.

A revolution was quietly brewing in the 1970s. The Alto was incredibly ahead of its time, embodying concepts that would later become standard in the personal computing industry. However, Xerox, primarily known for its photocopying technologies, failed to fully recognize the potential of the Alto and the groundbreaking work being done at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). The company was hesitant to venture aggressively into the personal computing market, a hesitation that can be viewed through the lens of corporate conservatism - a “cowardice” in the marketplace.

While Xerox did introduce some of the technologies developed at PARC into its products, it was Apple Computer that truly capitalized on these innovations. Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC in 1979, and the visit famously inspired elements of the Apple Lisa and, more significantly, the Macintosh. Apple was not hindered by the same level of caution that constrained Xerox and aggressively pursued the development and marketing of personal computers with GUIs, effectively bringing to the mass market the revolutionary concepts that Xerox had developed.

Jobs, not a fool by any standards, performed a clean sweep of the market from his coward counterpart.

I have no intent to antagonize the proclaimers, as they are the bearers of the consequences as much as they are the reapers of fruit of creation. Accountability of creation is what gives it meaning. Otherwise, it has null significance to humanity. We’ll consider ‘humanity’ on the same level as ‘society’, recognizing that it’s humanity’s prerogative to determine the relevance of any creation within the broader context. The same way a startup is but a twig in the maelstrom of the market response. The creator may build the ship, but to sail it only an expert helmsman can. Should it founder, the fault is moot. If it succeeds, do we laud the craftsman’s work on the hull, or the proclaimer’s navigational prowess? Things would be drastically different if the makers are on-board. Does that sound familiar? Groups of highly intelligent apes have demonstrated that they can row better in unison. But then someone has to call the shots. Should it be the one who made the boat, or the one who has the highest likelihood of success? We cannot even call it a ‘gray area’ as it would absolutely undermine; obliterate the complexity and the sheer number of variables involved in this setting. I am of-course referring to a neural network in this value attribution. Remember, the society chooses, creators and proclaimers just fill the role. If someone is to be blamed, and I see absolutely no reason to, one should blame humanity for evolving as such.

To structure our benchmark for this debate, let’s consider survival, both individual and collective, as a starting point. The tension between altruism and selfishness, between the creator who hesitates to claim their work and the proclaimer who eagerly shares it, mirrors a natural and societal law. It’s a dance of interdependence where creators build the foundations and proclaimers bridge these innovations with society.

At the heart of this exploration lies the concept of value — a multifaceted gem that reflects the intrinsic worth of both action and contemplation. The creators, the coders, the builders, are akin to the stoic philosophers of old, who believed that virtue resides in action and the rigorous application of wisdom. These modern Stoics, with their lines of code as their discourse, embody the essence of creation. Their work, often unseen, is the foundation upon which the edifice of progress stands. They are the silent warriors whose battles are fought in the solitude of their minds and the depths of their codebases.

Conversely, the heralds — the salespeople, marketers, and communicators — are the Socratics of our time, engaging the public forum with their rhetoric and persuasion. Their arena is the marketplace of ideas, where they wield the power of the word to bridge the chasm between innovation and its societal embrace. They fight not with swords but with stories, not with shields but with shared visions of the future. Their battles are fought in the open, under the watchful eyes of society, shaping perceptions and guiding the zeitgeist.

Yet, to cast one group as the cowards and the other as the fools is to neglect the essence of their interdependence. The philosopher Heraclitus once remarked on the unity of opposites, suggesting that the nature of things lies in this very tension and harmony between contrasting forces. In the context of an AI company, the builders and the heralds are not adversaries but are, instead, two sides of the same coin, engaged in a symbiotic relationship where each lends strength to the other. The builders’ innovations give the heralds stories to tell, while the heralds’ narratives provide the builders with the purpose and direction.

This interplay between creation and communication reflects a deeper philosophical truth about the nature of human endeavor. It is not the solitary genius that moves humanity forward but the collective effort of those who dare to dream and those who dare to speak. The builders may lay the foundation, but it is the heralds who invite the world to cross the threshold.

In this dance, there is no room for cowardice or folly; there is only the courageous pursuit of progress through the complementary acts of building and sharing. As we stand on the precipice of new technological frontiers, let us remember that the future is not just to be engineered in silence but also to be shared with passion. For in the end, it is through the convergence of these roles that society advances, propelled not just by the technology itself but by our collective belief in its potential to transform the world.

Thus, in the grand tapestry, we have very subtly shifted the gears from ‘self’ to ‘society’. Humanity doesn’t pause for a hero; it rallies behind those who step forward. But this raises a compelling question: Is a hero born from action or recognition? This will be a thought for another day.