Dedicate yourself to fighting for the principle • Bret Victor

Inventing on Principle on living for a cause • Bret Victor

   • Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle  


I don't see it as an opportunity when I observe creators constrained by their tools, their ideas compromised. I don't think, "Oh good, an opportunity to make a product, start a business, or contribute to research or a field." I'm not excited by finding a problem to solve. I'm not in this for the joy of making things. Ideas are very precious to me, and when I see ideas dying, it hurts. I see a tragedy. To me, it feels like a moral wrong, like an injustice, and if I think there's anything I can do about it, I feel it's my responsibility to do so. Not opportunity, but responsibility. Now, this is just my thing.


I'm not asking you to believe in this the way I do. My point here is that these words — injustice, responsibility, moral wrong — aren't words we normally hear in technical fields. However, we do hear these words in association with social causes, such as censorship, gender discrimination, and environmental destruction. Most of us recognize these as moral wrongs. Most of us wouldn't witness a civil rights violation and think, "Good, an opportunity." I hope not. Instead, we have been very fortunate to have had people throughout history who recognized these social wrongs and saw it as their responsibility to address them. Thus, there's this activist lifestyle where a person dedicates themselves to fighting for a cause they believe in.


The purpose of this talk is to tell you that this activist lifestyle is not just for social activism. As a technologist, you can recognize the wrong in the world, envision what a better world could be, and dedicate yourself to fighting for that principle. Social activists typically fight by organizing, but you, as a technologist, can fight by inventing.