That’s the title of Dave Winer’s most recent post. To which I say: Amen.

Bunches of people who work for a company are going to be doing it primarily for the money. That’s how our economy works. But if you’re at the top and you’re doing it just for the bucks, you’re depressed and you don’t know it. And you’re going to communicate that attitude down.

Oh, there are undoubtedly exceptions. But they’re the exceptions. And I know that there are CEOs who are turned on not by products but by processes. I’ve worked for some, and they did a fine job. At least they’re excited about something. But, it’d be better for the company if they got giddy about what their company does. Then maybe the rest of the company would think their product is worth building, worth extending, worth supporting. And CEOs are in a privileged position for making connections difficult for those who don’t get to stick their toes into so many corporate pools…if they care enough to have crazed ideas running through their heads as they lather up in the shower.

A somewhat related story: I certainly didn’t always agree with Michael Powell when he was head of the FCC, but I heard from someone who worked there that Powell was a gadget guy: Whatever the newest tech was, he wanted installed in his office so he could try it out. That made me feel much better about his tenure. At least he wasn’t a functionary, a bureaucrat, a time-server. I still disagreed with him, but I also felt that our disagreement was further up the stack and thus more resolvable.

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