Why "Unconditionally Human"?

This publication — and my business — is called Unconditionally Human. I chose these two words very carefully.

This publication — and my business — is called Unconditionally Human. I chose these two words very carefully.

I want to live in a world where more people see more complex perspectives.

Our world is experiencing a decent metacrisis (this video starts with defining it), which is a combination of ecological, political, technological, economic and other crises that humanity is living through right now.

There are many fault lines: neoliberals vs conservatives, left vs right, religion vs secularism, consumerism vs responsible consumption, open vs closed societies, e/acc vs degrowth and many others.

When I think about the future, I want to see a world in which more people are able to see more complex perspectives. To me, the root cause of much of current and future suffering, including the metacrisis, is a combination of power and a simplistic perspective. In the tech world, it may look like Ben Horowitz’s justification of his fund’s support for Trump:

“We are non-partisan, one-issue voters: if a candidate supports an optimistic technology-enabled future, we are for them. If they want to choke off important technologies, we are against them.”

In politics, it may look like Putin’s warning literally to destroy the world if he doesn’t get his way:

“All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilisation. Don’t they get that?”

However, this is relevant not only to powerful players or global issues. In exactly the same way, we create suffering in our individual lives — or in the companies we run — when we narrowly focus on one perspective and forget the rest.

We prioritise building our businesses and miss seeing children growing up.

We prioritise material success, and our soul quietly dies in the process, hitting us with depression so that we finally listen.

We prioritise being seen as successful and attractive and don’t realise that this approach doesn’t allow us to build deep, meaningful friendships.

We prioritise what we want and need, ignoring the needs of others in the process.

In short, we often focus too narrowly on one thing, ignoring the bigger picture, and pay a disproportionate price for our ignorance, learning the bitter lesson.

Before our world became so interconnected and our technologies so powerful, the bitter lessons were learned on an individual level and experienced as regrets in old age. Today, the bitter lessons might be learned only after we destroy our society and the ecosystem.

So, what does all of this have to do with this publication — and my business — being called Unconditionally Human?

In the world that I know—tech startups in particular and the West in general—one of the biggest blind spots we have, collectively and individually, is forgetting our unconditional humanity.

We forget that we, individually, are first and foremost human beings — not CEOs, not founders, not coaches, not employees, not our thoughts, let alone our possessions. We experience the world through the prism of our thoughts and ideas, ignoring the rich experience of being human.

Because we’re disconnected from our own humanity, we don’t see and respect the unconditional humanity in others. We see them (and, often, ourselves!) as threats, resources, or even something irrelevant.

Seeing the unconditional humanity in ourselves and others is the stepping stone towards building bridges over the fault lines of left and right, racists and anti-racists, liberals and conservatives… and towards being a happier, more grounded, wiser human being who’s a joy to be around.

And it matters to every founder CEO, too.

As Jerry Colonna keeps repeating,

Better humans make better leaders.

We are better CEOs when we remember and embody our humanity and, thus, see the humanity in those we work with. We make better decisions in moments of difficulty if we see a richer perspective. We live fuller lives.

But why Unconditionally Human? Our humanity, the very fact that we are living beings with consciousness, emotions, hopes and dreams, spirituality and a sense of mystery, profoundly interconnected with the rest of life and able to reflect on our experience — all of that is unconditional; it’s ours from birth to death.

I’m not a politician or a powerful figure. But I want to live in a world where more people have a deeper connection to their unconditional humanity and, thanks to that, to the humanity of others.

In this world, the startups we build are places where we’d like our children to work. There’s less hate in the streets or outrage on social media over issues that don’t even affect us day-to-day. There’s more collaboration and mutual support and less division. There’s more stargazing with loved ones and less sleepless nights.

There’s just more awareness of our shared and unconditional humanity.

“You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one”

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