Death is the default

Why building is our safest way forward

In the early stages of starting a company, founders stare in the face of one of the stark realities of human existence: the fact that death is the default. Their product or service did not exist in the world before they started building it, and it will quickly fizzle back out of existence if they step away from it. It’s like those horrible, murderous villains in Dr. Who, the “Weeping Angels,” who stand still as long as you’re watching them, but rapidly close in on you the moment you so much as blink. 

Or so it often feels, anyway. In fact, there are no murderous villains waiting to close in on you in the startup case; there are just the blind, indifferent forces of inertia and entropy. Most startups don’t die because someone is actively trying to kill them, but simply because the founders stop trying to keep them alive. 

This state of affairs is by no means unique to founders. It is a literal law of nature that every living being must grapple with. As Steven Pinker reminds us in Enlight…