What to do when you’re foundering in jargon

SOMEDAY, when you find yourself in a windowless room being exhorted to go “founder mode” by an earnest motivational coach-type, it is Paul Graham whom you’ll want to thank.

The entrepreneur’s manifesto, which made the rounds in Silicon Valley earlier this month, declared that there are essentially two ways to run a company: “founder mode” or “manager mode”.

The conventional “manager mode” entails MBA basics such as hiring good people and giving them leeway to do their job. Graham, however, reckons that this is middle-man hooey – just another way to “hire professional fakers and let them drive the company into the ground”.