Hello friends. We are excited to introduce the Ulysses Pact Starter Pack!
We are in a time of duality. Watching Big Tech’s litigation, privacy problems, and ethics unravel vs. the advent of emerging new kids on the block such as conversational search from providers like OpenAI, Perplexity, lots of CTV disruption from TTD and more. With new opportunities abound, there is a new class of tech leaders going from well intended altruistic start-ups to… well, questioning if they are simply becoming the giants that they were once setting out to slay. The most obvious version in the news is currently the lawsuit Elon Musk filed against OpenAI for evolving into a for profit company and abandoning the original position of a nonprofit, open source, and public participation.
Now, we can hate on Musk all day, but he has a point here. A major tenant that non-profit and open source allows for, are things like interoperability, open markets, technical evolution, and public participation to flourish. The inverse of this are things like patents, privatizing, and high switch costs to close backdoors, cover your tracks to prevent benefit, and create moats for short term profit. Not to say these companies are not altruistic, but history shows it certainly erodes quickly when things like patents, questionable investors, and the pressure of extreme finance puts the foot in your door.
It raises the question: Can we have a balance of commercial profit, and public benefit? We believe you can!
You see, friends. We are humans after all. And the human mind can be easily corruptible. All of us can essentially change our mind. No matter how altruistic you may be, once the siren calls of money, power, and leverage reach your ears, it can turn even the most faithful to the deep depths of the sea. If you are not a founder or in the c-suite at your company, change begins on the work floor. Having these conversations with fellow workers, and putting the wax in your ears together can indeed influence decisioning above. So, in the advent that you find yourself in the same position as lets say, Sam Altman going back on his altruistic word, we propose a few methods below to protect you, from you:
Digital Ulysses Pact:
For those that do not know, a Ulysses Pact refers to an old Greek story that you can read here. The TLDR of it is: Ulysses wanted to hear the Siren’s call, but knew it would render him incapable of rational thought and drive him to his death. So he put wax in his men’s ears to prevent them from hearing anything at all and paired it with strict orders to stay on course. He then had them tie him to the mast of the ship with swords to his throat and the promise that if he broke free they would kill him. As they approached the Sirens he went partially insane, and then tried and tried with all his might to break free to follow the siren's call into the sea. But alas, he failed and stayed tied to the mast. His men refused to free him, and Ulysses avoided certain death.
Your Ulysses Pact Starter Pack! (UPSP):
So let’s set up some pacts to prevent your untimely demise if you are ever faced with the sweet siren call:
- Irrevocable Open Source Licenses: By placing technical work and code repo’s into irrevocable open source licenses early on, you avoid the chance of trouble downstream because the open license as stated is, irrevocable. So even if you do hear those longing siren calls, there is simply no way to recall it, and neither can the next person. GNU (GPL), MIT, MOZ and many more license types will offer permissive to restrictive options, attribution rights, with “copy left” terms to ensure it continues to live on with those same terms no matter who may pick it up. Here is a list to get you started.
- Creative Commons Licences: If you are a designer, artist, writer, or have creative work. You can put non-technical creations into irrevocable Creative Commons Licenses early on. Much like open source, you can manage permissives, copy left restrictions, attribution, and commerce usage to your preference. Here are a few.
- Scrutinize early hires, leadership, and investors: Seek to bring into the company only those that align with your values and the mission. This seems obvious. But, even the most self-aware can find themselves overlooking this crucial step. Get incredibly good at assessing people, or those people can erode the ropes that were supposed to keep you tied to the mast.
- Avoid giving away the majority shareholder position: Don’t give away controlling voice in your company too early on. The exit should always be in mind, but jumping out too early could very much impact your hard work. Not only can you impact future investment opportunities, but you could default control and be forced to idly sit by and watch as your good intentions enshittify in someone else's hands.
What can we learn from Ulysses? Strategizing to become incorruptible in the face of unknown futures is a smart move. Allowing interoperability, public participation, and copy left governance for a greater good is a step forward in adtech leadership that I think we all would like to see. Not to mention, we can bring our industry into the discussion of digital rights that our future generations will thank us for, and that is something worth tying yourself to the mast to ensure.
-TAFKA-13
