A provocative observation: "Founder mode is authoritarian-curious"

Within an organization, an authoritarian approach can be useful: it doesn't get distracted and pushes through the swirling chaos to make something happen.

But it can also do a lot of damage if it's not ground-truthed.

Companies are authoritarian inside but are competing in the market outside.

The market keeps companies ground-truthed; if they weren't, they'd be knocked out of the game by more capable competitors.

Companies can have founder-mode and survive, because there's an outside world they have to compete and survive in, constantly ground-truthing them by force.

But sovereign states are different.

Sovereign states have monopolies on a given geography.

The competition is much more diffuse and over time.

Authoritarianism in an environment that's not rigorously ground truthed is extraordinarily dangerous.