The case for crime is, in fact, pretty clear-cut you have a bright mind, an appetite for risk, and resist societal expectations about orderly conduct - i.e. it is another flavor of "startup founder".
You only need one big score where you get away clean and you're done, your criminal career is complete in one go and you can retire. Compare that to all the fuss of operating within society, the social signalling and bargaining and courting of gatekeepers - that's only worth it if you've been groomed for it in some way.
And computer crime is as clean as it comes, in terms of the kind of damage done. The ultimate purpose is simple - change some database rows! No bashing of heads or physical entry to property needed. With appropriate choice of targets, you pass the resulting crisis over to some figurehead executive who mumbles for a bailout from the government. Numbers are shifted around again after some delay and everyone is happy.
By contrast the SV startup dynamic is one of gaining overt power over others, not just getting a high score. The product and platform acts as a Trojan Horse for this subjugation, powered by a belief(oftentimes a sincere one) that this is a grand humanitarian project, which in turn inspires cult thinking. Then to even get in as a worker, you have to fit into the cultural mold. Your userbase is likewise fostered towards dependence and ushered to mega-scale, data-driven extraction, if not immediately, then later, after the company is acquired. It's all quite a long schlep if you just like working with technology to help people.
>You only need one big score where you get away clean and you're done
The laughable part is here. People bring their problems with them. The kind of person who would pull off a big score, such as a brilliant hack or a bank robbery, won't retire to the Oregon coast and drive at or below the speed limit for the rest of their lives. A lot of those traits are traits of antisocial personality disorder. People like that are magnets for trouble. They won't lie low and relax for the rest of their days.
It's a lie criminals are not professionals. It comes with a set of other rules, rituals and codes. The money is not a big score but an unlimited amount of cashflow. The antisocials are the ones blowing up a money printing machine just for the sake of their ego. Have you ever seen estimates of the grey economy? That world is running way more efficient than civilian life because of the stakes. Guys like Pablo get that famous because he had an antisocial personality and had to blow up an airplane while he was one of the most richest billionaires in the world.
Antisocial personality disorder is almost a prerequisite for career criminals. Disagreeable enough to commit crime and not feel bad about it, extroverted enough to enter or form a gang, and low enough in neuroticism to keep your cool under pressure. I'm not trying to paint all antisocial people as "bad". It's also a personality configuration that works well in certain military positions.
You only need one big score where you get away clean and you're done, your criminal career is complete in one go and you can retire. Compare that to all the fuss of operating within society, the social signalling and bargaining and courting of gatekeepers - that's only worth it if you've been groomed for it in some way.
And computer crime is as clean as it comes, in terms of the kind of damage done. The ultimate purpose is simple - change some database rows! No bashing of heads or physical entry to property needed. With appropriate choice of targets, you pass the resulting crisis over to some figurehead executive who mumbles for a bailout from the government. Numbers are shifted around again after some delay and everyone is happy.
By contrast the SV startup dynamic is one of gaining overt power over others, not just getting a high score. The product and platform acts as a Trojan Horse for this subjugation, powered by a belief(oftentimes a sincere one) that this is a grand humanitarian project, which in turn inspires cult thinking. Then to even get in as a worker, you have to fit into the cultural mold. Your userbase is likewise fostered towards dependence and ushered to mega-scale, data-driven extraction, if not immediately, then later, after the company is acquired. It's all quite a long schlep if you just like working with technology to help people.