Startup as a Hunter-Gatherer Tribe — zi
We have learned that there is a huge difference between hunting small prey and big prey: if we only hunt tiny insects, we will perpetually scramble for the next meal; if we hunt big mammals, we will naturally pursue greater hunts. In other words, small prey teaches us how to stay small; big prey teaches us how to grow big. Crucially, our energy comes from what we hunt.
There are plenty that can go (and have gone) wrong with each hunt: being unprepared, pursuing what isn’t prey, changing prey mid-hunt, or losing sight of the prey while hunting.
We should be wary whenever any of our spears are not directed at what needs to be hunted. This misalignment of spears may predict failure more reliably than anything else — a spear aimed at the sky or ground won’t hunt anything. Even a dull spear pointed at the right target stands a better chance than the sharpest spear pointed nowhere.
When this happens, it is tempting to point our own spears back. The way to correct a misaligned spear is not to aim another spear at them, no matter how strong the urge may be. This might fix the misalignment temporarily, but the underlying problem persists: each hunter’s vision of the prey determines where their spear will point tomorrow. If they do not see the prey we see, they will not align their spear with ours. More importantly, every time we respond to misalignment with spear-pointing, we teach the tribe that spears are how we solve internal, human problems. Our spears should point outward — to hunt, to provide, to bring energy to the tribe — rather than inward, towards our own people.
