A chat with the SF writer, activist, and author about his world-conquering coinage and how workers can take back the internet.
The Youtube/Kickstarter caption problem sounds like it could be solved by interoperability.
Entrepreneurship and Politics: Prime Territory for Grifters
There are two arenas where human hope and human ego collide most violently: entrepreneurship and politics.
Both are frontier spaces.
Both reward confidence.
Both tolerate risk.
Both lack hard gatekeepers.
And both are prime territory for grifters.
1. Why These Two Domains Attract Grifters
1.1 High Asymmetry of Information
In both startups and politics, the average observer cannot easily verify claims.
A founder says, “We’re building AI that will transform education.”
A politician says, “This policy will create 100,000 jobs.”
Most people lack the tools, time, or data to independently audit those statements.
When verification is hard, persuasion becomes the currency.
That’s fertile ground for manipulation.
1.2 Vision Sells Better Than Evidence
Entrepreneurs sell futures.
Politicians sell narratives.
In both spaces, the product is largely intangible until later.
A grifter thrives in the gap between promise and proof.
They weaponise:
Charisma
Urgency
Identity alignment
Fear
Tribal loyalty
They do not need to build something real. They only need to keep belief alive long enough.
1.3 Outcome Lag Protects Them
Real startups take years to succeed or fail.
Political consequences take election cycles to materialise.
That delay creates cover.
By the time reality catches up, the grifter has:
Rebranded
Shifted blame
Pivoted to a new audience
Or moved on entirely
Long feedback loops are camouflage.
2. The Structural Similarities
Entrepreneurship
Politics
“We’re pre-revenue.”
“We inherited a mess.”
“Trust the roadmap.”
“Trust the plan.”
“We just need one more round.”
“We just need one more term.”
“The market will understand.”
“The public will see.”
Both rely on narrative momentum.
When narrative outruns accountability, grift flourishes.
3. The Psychological Lever
Grifters do not primarily exploit stupidity.
They exploit:
Aspiration
Desperation
Identity
Moral outrage
Hope for belonging
Entrepreneurship offers wealth and legacy.
Politics offers power and moral righteousness.
Those are intoxicating forces.
A grifter doesn’t need everyone to believe. They only need enough believers to create social proof.
4. What Separates Builders from Grifters
The line is not ambition.
It is not charisma.
It is not even bold claims.
The line is this:
Can the system falsify you?
A real builder:
Publishes measurable milestones
Allows external audit
Accepts constraints
Takes personal downside risk
Admits error
A grifter:
Moves goalposts
Blames critics
Expands the narrative instead of narrowing it
Avoids hard metrics
Monetises attention before results
Entrepreneurship without accountability becomes theatre.
Politics without accountability becomes performance.
5. The Dangerous Overlap
The modern era has fused the two.
Political entrepreneurs.
Startup-style governance.
Personal brands as public institutions.
When influence is monetised directly through attention — podcasts, merch, consulting, subscriptions — grift becomes structurally profitable.
You can fail at building and still win at branding.
That is new.
And dangerous.
6. The Antidote
Three simple filters:
Time compression test If the claim were false, how quickly would we know?
Skin in the game test What does this person lose if they’re wrong?
Specificity test Can they state exactly what success looks like and by when?
Vagueness is oxygen for grift.
Precision suffocates it.
7. Final Thought
Entrepreneurship and politics are not inherently corrupt domains.
They are power-dense domains.
Wherever there is concentrated power, attention, money, or identity, grifters will orbit.
The real question is not how to eliminate them.
It is how to design systems where:
Feedback loops are short
Claims are measurable
Power carries consequence
Narrative cannot outrun reality
Because when narrative outruns reality long enough…
Collapse becomes the audit.
And collapse is a brutal auditor.
I call what Cory does Tourette’s journalism.
The Youtube/Kickstarter caption problem sounds like it could be solved by interoperability.
Entrepreneurship and Politics: Prime Territory for Grifters
There are two arenas where human hope and human ego collide most violently: entrepreneurship and politics.
Both are frontier spaces.
Both reward confidence.
Both tolerate risk.
Both lack hard gatekeepers.
And both are prime territory for grifters.
1. Why These Two Domains Attract Grifters
1.1 High Asymmetry of Information
In both startups and politics, the average observer cannot easily verify claims.
A founder says, “We’re building AI that will transform education.”
A politician says, “This policy will create 100,000 jobs.”
Most people lack the tools, time, or data to independently audit those statements.
When verification is hard, persuasion becomes the currency.
That’s fertile ground for manipulation.
1.2 Vision Sells Better Than Evidence
Entrepreneurs sell futures.
Politicians sell narratives.
In both spaces, the product is largely intangible until later.
A grifter thrives in the gap between promise and proof.
They weaponise:
Charisma
Urgency
Identity alignment
Fear
Tribal loyalty
They do not need to build something real. They only need to keep belief alive long enough.
1.3 Outcome Lag Protects Them
Real startups take years to succeed or fail.
Political consequences take election cycles to materialise.
That delay creates cover.
By the time reality catches up, the grifter has:
Rebranded
Shifted blame
Pivoted to a new audience
Or moved on entirely
Long feedback loops are camouflage.
2. The Structural Similarities
Entrepreneurship
Politics
“We’re pre-revenue.”
“We inherited a mess.”
“Trust the roadmap.”
“Trust the plan.”
“We just need one more round.”
“We just need one more term.”
“The market will understand.”
“The public will see.”
Both rely on narrative momentum.
When narrative outruns accountability, grift flourishes.
3. The Psychological Lever
Grifters do not primarily exploit stupidity.
They exploit:
Aspiration
Desperation
Identity
Moral outrage
Hope for belonging
Entrepreneurship offers wealth and legacy.
Politics offers power and moral righteousness.
Those are intoxicating forces.
A grifter doesn’t need everyone to believe. They only need enough believers to create social proof.
4. What Separates Builders from Grifters
The line is not ambition.
It is not charisma.
It is not even bold claims.
The line is this:
Can the system falsify you?
A real builder:
Publishes measurable milestones
Allows external audit
Accepts constraints
Takes personal downside risk
Admits error
A grifter:
Moves goalposts
Blames critics
Expands the narrative instead of narrowing it
Avoids hard metrics
Monetises attention before results
Entrepreneurship without accountability becomes theatre.
Politics without accountability becomes performance.
5. The Dangerous Overlap
The modern era has fused the two.
Political entrepreneurs.
Startup-style governance.
Personal brands as public institutions.
When influence is monetised directly through attention — podcasts, merch, consulting, subscriptions — grift becomes structurally profitable.
You can fail at building and still win at branding.
That is new.
And dangerous.
6. The Antidote
Three simple filters:
Time compression test If the claim were false, how quickly would we know?
Skin in the game test What does this person lose if they’re wrong?
Specificity test Can they state exactly what success looks like and by when?
Vagueness is oxygen for grift.
Precision suffocates it.
7. Final Thought
Entrepreneurship and politics are not inherently corrupt domains.
They are power-dense domains.
Wherever there is concentrated power, attention, money, or identity, grifters will orbit.
The real question is not how to eliminate them.
It is how to design systems where:
Feedback loops are short
Claims are measurable
Power carries consequence
Narrative cannot outrun reality
Because when narrative outruns reality long enough…
Collapse becomes the audit.
And collapse is a brutal auditor.
I call what Cory does Tourette’s journalism.