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that profit motive becomes the most impor-
tant thing, and kindness disappears.
How do you define success?
I would define success as people who have a
place to live, a job, a passion of some kind,
food to eat, and relationships. No. 1 is positive
relationships. That is success as far as I’m con-
cerned. The community is so important. In
America we need that today more than ever.
Does technology help or hinder the implementa-
tion of TRICK values?
Technology is good because it empowers kids; it
gives them the opportunity to find information
themselves. The downside is we spread misbe-
havior. The question is how do we regulate that.
Do we want to hide [information]? Suicides in
high schools—if you cover the suicide and talk
about it, statistics [show] there’s an upsurge of
suicides that happen after. One thing we should
do is promote media literacy and media educa-
tion: how to use your phone ethically, how to
use technology for information. The only thing
we do now is confiscate kids’ phones, which is
ridiculous. They don’t learn anything; they just
learn that the phone is forbidden fruit.
prepared. But they need to realize that they
should not use the SAT as a gauge for what
makes a good employee.
Of the five TRICK principles, which is the hardest
for employers to implement?
Trust. Employers don’t trust their employees,
so they have a lot of mechanisms to make sure
employees are actually doing the work that
they’re supposed to do. I can understand why
it’s hard because there are people out there
who don’t do what they’re supposed to do. But
I would suggest explaining the culture of the
company and talking about how you’re giving
people more trust and respect, and how you’re
expecting people to honor that. If there are
violations, then you do have to change the
rules. But I would say that most people work
really hard. The second hardest is kindness.
Why is kindness so hard?
Because we don’t have a word in the English
language that expresses happiness when other
people succeed—that we don’t have the word
shows that we don’t even have the concept.
When you have a profit motive in mind and
somebody doesn’t meet your expectations,
Family ties
(from lef t):
Wojcicki sisters
Anne, Susan,
and Janet at
the California
Academy of
Sciences in San
Francisco.
DOUGLAS FRIEDM
AN
—TRUNK ARCHIVE
