Business & Childhood

LinkedIn won’t let me post a long comment in reply to a post from Jess Butcher, so posting it here instead.

Good read. It’s inspiring to see more voices calling for companies to take a more responsible role in the world. It really got me thinking about what we could do if we were willing to go bolder. Some thoughts which are not as well ordered as I’d like, and really deserves much more narrative:

Earned vs. Immediate Dopamine Rewards:

Unlike the instant enjoyment of scrolling through TikTok, earned enjoyment, like building with Lego or learning a new skill, provide deeper satisfaction, teach perseverance, and foster resilience. Computer games are sometimes good at this; escape rooms hint at it.. I’m trying to think of other areas where business does long-play without it becoming a forced-subscription (“Gotta collect ’em all!”)

The Role of Companies

• Companies have the resources and reach to create impactful solutions, but they’re often incentivised to chase short-term gains and oversell products to parents. This can lead to exploitation of fears rather than solving core issues.
• A commercial approach is incentivised to favour easy, scalable wins rather than meaningful, long-term community solutions. That’s needed, but should be coupled with a humility which is hard to find in marketing teams.
• Cory Doctorow’s concept of “enshitification” highlights how good ideas can degrade into profit-driven ventures that lose sight of their original purpose. Are companies capable of the patience needed to build and maintain community spaces, or should they take a supporting role, letting communities and non-profits lead instead?
• Rather than do more good, instead could companies do less harm? If we’re not wired on sugar, made insecure by advertising, and cajoled to consume more, I suspect we’d start from a better place.

The Role of Different Organisations

Pausing a moment to consider the role of organisational structures, and their pros and cons, and which might be best suited to solve each part of the puzzle; or combined in new (or new-to-now/here) ways to deliver better outcomes.

• Government: Provide policy frameworks, risk funding, and oversight.
  • Typical weaknesses: Bureaucracy, slow response times, influenced by political cycles, limited flexibility, thinking one-size fits all.
  • Thwarted by: Changing political agendas, budget constraints, and Overton windows, lack of granular data.
• Non-Profits: Bring deep expertise and a mission-driven focus to address specific needs.
  • Typical weaknesses: Efficiency, scaling, replication.
  • Thwarted by: Securing funding, grant application process, bureaucracy, overbearing legislation, low wages.
• Businesses: Drive innovation and efficiently scale solutions.
  • Typical weaknesses: Short-term profit focus, limited prioritisation of social good, risk of exploiting consumer fears, framing people as consumers not people. 
  • Thwarted by: Lack of long-term incentive structures, limited governance.
• Educational Institutions: Create learning environments and support child development.
  • Typical weaknesses: Limited flexibility to adapt to new programs, bureaucratic structures, resistance to change.
  • Thwarted by: Funding limitations, rigid curriculums, lack of resources for extracurricular activities.
• Community Organisations: Ensure local needs are met and adapt initiatives to fit cultural and community contexts.
  • Typical weaknesses: Limited reach and scalability, dependence on volunteer support, lack of consistent funding.
  • Thwarted by: Volunteer burnout, insufficient funding, challenges in gaining broader community engagement.

Different types of company

It’s worth pointing out that there are many different types of companies, and increasingly structures like B-Corps and cooperatives — which are more structurally able to support a more aligned set of incentives and values — are being actively chosen by founders who want the freedoms of a company without being forced to comply with pure capitalist values by the board or shareholders.

Modelling Engagement as Adults

• How we, as adults, engage with the real world sets the tone for younger generations. If we create balance in our own lives — better work/life balance, less screen time, and more meaningful social interactions ourselves — we model better behaviours for children.
• In the UK, our go-to meeting point in the pub where we stand around, take drugs, and mostly have mediocre conversations. Creating environments that nurture curiosity and activity benefits both adults and children, rather than outsourcing these responsibilities to products.

Alternative Models for Impact

• 4 day work weeks → innovation. Google famously had 20% innovation time where employees could pursue ideas without having to justify them. It became one of the most innovative, useful, and impactful companies in the world. Humanity needs A LOT of social-, economic-, cultural-, institutional-, political-, civic-, environmental- innovation right now to build resilience against our existential threats. Supporting creative ‘play’ for adults leads to cascading impacts for everyone. I suggest an addition to the IRL pledge whereby we compress our hours (or do our work more efficiently with AI where possible) and commit to spending 10-20% of our liberated time in service of building a better world. 
• Companies could act as catalysts rather than sole providers: provide support for spaces, support NGOs / community organisations with eg legal / marketing / spaces. 
• Funding Initiatives: They could fund projects through grants (and streamline grant giving) or partnerships, empowering communities instead of dictating solutions.
• Rethinking schools: AI (and VR) is going to dramatically change education. It should both accelerate it, deepen it, improve it, scale it, decentralise it and thus create more opportunities for doing more things with schools because there will be more freedom to use space and time in a different way. What that looks like.. well that’s another two essays to write. 

Thanks again for starting this conversation. There’s so much room for thoughtful, innovative action here. Let’s keep pushing for more—companies as catalysts, yes, but the heart of it needs to stay with communities and the values we collectively share.