Openness is advantageous in the beginning, but maladaptive later on
In the beginning, you have no brand to lose
OpenPhil, OpenAI are much less open than they used to be
In the beginning, you have less stuff to share so it’s easier to share all of it
Manifold codebase and Notion are super messy now
The ability to navigate an internal mess is a kind of power
Search, outlines, summaries, charts are a kind of openness
It’s easier to be open about yourself and data that you “control”; harder for data that other people have given you, or data about other people
Privacy is a harmful meme; the idea of privacy makes people think “hey, you shouldn’t be able to say that about me”
Private pieces of Manifold mostly are “because of other people”
Manifold aims for openness on:
Our source code
Our data
The knowledge of our meetings
Our financials (including salary, cap table)
Paragons of openness:
Blogging on the internet (Holden, Jeff & Julia)
APIs
Our World In Data
Counterpoints
Selective shared vulnerability might be a cornerstone of a relationship? If you’re as open about your thoughts with everyone as with your partner, what’s special about a partnership?
E.g. love letters, naked photos, sexual activity are valuable because they’re extremely exclusive
Misc
If Manifold is open on our codebase/data/processes, where is its value?
Brand — people know about Manifold and trust it to be a good experience and providing useful knowledge
Team — both the individuals working on the team, and the relationships between them. The team can make changes on its existing codebase & data much much better than anyone else
Money — the team still controls where we spend money, who we hire (aka whose time we rent to further add to the Manifold platform)