Inside the Self-Shamanification of Silicon Valley Tech CEOs

Sometimes a story seems so long overdue it is surprising I haven't read it (or someone hasn't written it) yet. Manvir Singh recently wrote in WIRED about the “self-shamanification” of tech CEOs. It is a clever way to describe what anyone in the tech industry has likely already witnessed.

From intermittent fasting to mixing butter in your coffee, the routines of the tech industry's rich and quirky have been around for years. Yet as this article notes, the practice of Shamanism is ancient and global. Typically, Shamans of all sorts “promise control over the uncertain.” They overcome skepticism often through some form of self-denial which makes them appear supernatural. All of which makes us think their credibility comes because of these unique habits. Or at least that it is fueled by them.

Over time, eventually the idolatry stops, the skepticism takes over and we realize that most of these self-declared shamans were rarely worthy of all the admiration in the first place. Those secrets of success that were once celebrated are now seen for what they always were: quirky habits of undeniably original but otherwise average people.