I teach in the History of Science program at Harvard. My research and teaching focus on the intersections between various forms of expertise and alleged expertise (especially psychology and economics) and the ways that all of us make sense of our day-to-day lives. My new book, which you can order here and elsewhere, is about how Americans came to view “entrepreneurship” as the pinnacle of the good life, and what I see as the pernicious consequences of that development. I recently wrote for the New York Times on how this history can help us understand why Elon Musk is such a psychopath.
I also help edit a magazine about politics and culture called The Drift, and I’ve written essays for a public audience in a wide range of outlets on subjects ranging from the films of David Lynch to the exploitative labor practices of Amy’s Kitchen.
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Do you see any realistic prospect of deprogramming America and erasing the ‘up by the bootstrap’ mythology? Is it impossible given that foundational structures (Protestant work ‘ethics’) are now turbocharged by influencer capitalism (hustle/grind aesthetics). On that note, do you have any opinions on people like Gary Stevenson in the UK?
Thanks for the fascinating AMA! How has the stereotypical “American work ethic” been influenced by America’s long history of immigration from both different cultural and religious groups? I’m thinking groups like Quakers or Puritans, but also Irish, Scots, Germans etc.
Thanks for doing this AMA! As a historian of religion, I’m curious where religion fits into the the idea of American entrepreneurship, and how does Christianity vs non-Christian faiths intersect with this idea differently?
Hello! I am wondering if you think the rise of the 401k as opposed to pensions has had an effect on entrepreneurship/hustle culture. And did it change the relationship of ordinary working people to the investor class? Thank you for this AMA!
I’m interested in the ‘instagram influencer’ side of things. Social media espouses the virtues of entrepreneurship endlessly with the algorithm promoting ‘rise and grinders’ right to the top. I wonder whether you think there are avenues of countering these narratives with a more collectivist vision or is it a foregone conclusion when it comes to the social media sphere?
Hello Erik, thank you for doing this AMA with us!
I’m curious what you can tell us about the historical connections between scientific management and politics. I feel much has been written about the pioneers of the field like Taylor, Bedaux, and Ford, but how did this relationship evolve in the postindustrial world?
What are your thoughts on the MBA and, more generally speaking, other similar degrees/qualifications? Obviously there are skills you learn and the “expertise” that the degree suggests about you is not all fake or whatever, but it would seem to me that the “floor” in terms of what the degree actually qualifies you to do is quite low– if that makes any sense. Furthermore, I’m interested in the idea that you might be qualified in “business” but not the specifics of the industry you work in, leading to massive issues.
There’s not really a specific question buried in there but if any of what I said prompts any kinda thoughts I would love to hear them!
So, many successful (and vocal) entrepreneurs often refer to themselves as a “high performance leaders who aspires to push their team to get the best results possible,” or something similar — which sounds a bit like double speak meaning highly demanding. This then often contributes to exhaustion among their workforce. What’s your take on this sort of thing?
What’s your take on the effect of the promotion of entrepreneurship on scam entrepreneur concepts like MLMs and bogus franchising opportunities?
Thank you for doing this AMA! This sounds like a fascinating topic, and I’m particularly interested in the relationship between “entrepreneurship” and the development of concepts such as “model minorities”. How did perceptions of expertise or work ethics become entangled with ethnic or cultural connotations over the twentieth century?
Hi Dr. baker, huge fan of the book thanks for doing this.
I had one question for you and one funny story connected to your book.
First, I am a really big fan of Vincent Bevins recent book “if we burn” in the book he traces the history of global mass protests in the 2010’s and attempts to analyze why so many of them were unsuccessful. Among the core messages of his book is the failure of horizontalism to produce meaningful and/or stable political coalitions.
Your book focused on the history of American entrepreneurialism, but do you have any thoughts on how entrepreneurialism as a cultural export and management ethos has shaped politics globally? Do you see a connection between the history of entrepreneurialism and the phenomena of decentralized mass protests, or am I just trying to mesh too things I read recently without accounting for other more important factors.
Onto the story. I just came back from a family vacation where I read the whole book. My grandpa would have been a premier case study for you. He is a business consultant who teaches management seminars on “spiritual awareness and grounding” to “access higher states of intuitive being” in order to help “dynamic leaders make more effective and beneficial businesses decisions.” All his words. He does through teaching a west coast hippie version aikido, a Japanese martial art. He came and sat down next to me to talk about his job seconds after I finished your book, it was to say the least a trip since I had always been wondered what factors combined to make him think this way. Your book was in some way a genealogy of the lines of thought passed through my family.
Thank you again for an amazing text, I really enjoyed it.
How hard are you drinking today and do you have a cocktail of choice?
I grew up around Silicon Valley. My mom was a 1st-generation computer programmer, worked the valley from xy-table CAD machines programmed in assembly, up through the first Alexa. Said they used to think, “we’re building the future,” as in maybe Star Trek, and had a high degree of engagement, of morale. Also worked to gain “sweat equity” and stock options at start-ups, in hopes of getting truly rich. The alternative minimum tax reduced the attractiveness of stock options because there was a scenario in which you got taxed for more than you could possibly have gained. Shortly after, around the time the “how to turn clicks into dollars” question became the main problem to solve, everyone realized the future they were building was less Gene Roddenberry and more George Orwell. Morale collapsed, and the dream became a cynical grinding money factory inhabited by bitter yet greedy salarymen working inhuman hours for merely the sake of status. It has been winding down and getting less and less innovative ever since and may already be a dead valley walking. AI provides a lifeline for the “next big thing” narrative, but even it is not new— Watson impressed people in 2011, but look for IBM now. I wonder if you too perceive it as possible that the Silicon Valley work ethic, worldview and lifestyle have already peaked, and that the digital odyssey faces an aircraft-industry-in-the-70s style catastrophic stagnation. A stagnation that could allow normal people to rebuild our values and economic opportunity space.
I sometimes see the word “entrepreneur” associated with the earliest days of American capitalism, loosely referring to a novel and rising class of businesspeople. I notice your book’s period starts in the late 19th/early 20th century. Is that when its modern usage became recognizable? Interested in your view on how the term changed over time and/or emerged to mean something different in the period you studied. Thanks!
Do people ever think you’re the StubHub founder?
Hello, I’m curious about the history of management consulting and especially the slide deck presentation as the pinnacle/default method of business communication. When did this way of communicating information become so prevalent and what contributed to its growth especially with respect to consulting? you said you research “the intersection between various forms of expertise and alleged expertise”; do you consider consulting firms like McKinsey to fit in that intersection? I haven’t read your book but I’m curious if you profile those “various forms” anywhere
Possibly leaving your wheelhouse but do you think the Reformation was a necessary prerequisite for the rapid industrialization of Europe and spread of capitalism?
How do you feel about the spiritual ideal espoused by the right of ‘personal responsibility’?
Right now, I’m figuratively sitting on the fence about how to jump back in to the work world in a healthy, productive for me manner. I’ve had a variety of careers over the decades, mostly in management within the non-profit industry. Most in that industry have become just as corporatized as any private company out there and I’m simply disgusted by the regime of labor laws, policies, and practices and the dire lack of protections/financial risk mitigations we’ve allowed to develop in this country.
I’m healthy, active, mid-life, have lots of cash put anyway but not nearly enough yet, and am frozen in my decision-making. (Granted, now is generally a pretty tweaked out timeline).
What would be your list of do’s and don’ts for an experienced professional looking not just for a new career direction but how to best take advantage of changes to the modern labor force in the US?
To entertain the entrepreneurial spirit a bit. Many rightwing talking points that government regulations discourage starting your own business. How true are these statements in your research? My anecdotal experience is that it is more due to risk and not knowing where to start.
Secondly, I know several artists and small business owners who went into work for big business due to family health insurance. When was or is employee benefits regarding health insurance being a factor in the work dynamics?
Thirdly, land and rent is expensive. In the developing world, entreprenialship was not encouraged but they were more accessible. Poor people starting small business all the time. For all the talk about entrepenialship in America, much of the business startup seems to have capital that was not accessible by the average workers. What do the government or parties who promote entrepreniarial spirit actually do, to make them more assessible, other than the usual talking points about tax and regulations, which help large business competitor?
Fourth, how does suburban sprawl effect the entreprenialship? How do you start a local store, when the big box store can take all your customer away?
Why did the way the US deals with labor laws, unions etc. never really make it into the EU/Europe and vice versa? At what point would you say was there a definite split between the US model and a scandinavian-/german-/french-model (to kinda lump them all together)?
Especially wondering how the US-model never took roots in germany, despite the US occupation zone being right there and – maybe? – the possibility to export the US model there.
Thank you so much for doing this! The first thing that came to mind when reading your intro was the, I believe, fairly modern phenomenon of the teacherpreneur – teachers who start their own businesses selling a service or resource related to teaching. Is there a history of other such hybrid -prenuers in other fields?
Shark tank was started during the Great Recession, and in the U.S. there is a somewhat standard piece of “colloquial wisdom” that many people start entrepreneurial ventures when the economy gets bad.
Really, I’m interested in any perspective you feel like offering here, but specifically I am wondering if this is somewhat of an American thing (at least from a cultural point of view). My hunch would be that it ties into some of our founding myths, where the United States was one part survival-frontier-backwater, but also concerned about high minded ideals and building new things.
Dear Mr. Baker, I have a question concerning about how we can reverse the entrepreneurial obsession as your book (and others) have criticized. It seems that a minimum income plan would help alleviate the belief that in order to escape economic uncertainty AND to feel good about yourself. The logic would be that , if you have enough money to live on your own, you do not need to say keep up with the joneses. So why hasn’t the Democratic Party or even the American left rallied behind this?
The Nixon presidency was and is the only presidency where minimum income income was a serious goal , yet Democrats played a major role in killing the plan (although conservative senators and pundits were in opposition as well).