Tobi Lütke: observation

Transcript context

…The idea, am Tisch — there’s something very German about it. You can pound your fist on the table. It’s a Stammtisch, really. I think in both those instances, people do something which I think has a lot of relevance to this real-life-versus-social-media conundrum that people are wrestling with, which is that I think there’s a significant human need — unacknowledged — for venting. I think venting is one of those extremely important outlets. It’s an original safe space in a way. At some point, people say, “Okay. Well, you’re clearly off.” At least people say this to me. I can go pretty far in venting. Germans can be going very far. Stereotypes are funny because they often are true. Venting, catastrophizing, these kinds of things, and then having your friends reel you in. The issue I think we’ve seen, especially at the beginning of this decade, is people ported their venting online and then got their one take retweeted forever because it just captured the imagination. I feel people misunderstood what was actually going on for a little bit. I hope everyone has acclimatized to this reality now. How do we create safe outlets for venting in companies or institutions? What is it that one does? Because you don’t want it to turn into negative contagion, right?…

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