Re: The Top Ten Happenings in Mopologetics, 2022
Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2022 6:37 pm
I listened to Gay's address this week. Have to say, I have lost a lot of respect for Bob Gay over the years.
He must certainly have developed an eye for evaluating strong business & people practices. He has decades of combined experience at premier names such as McKinsey, Bain Capital and as a co-founder of HGGC. To have created such a successful career, whether building or buying companies, there are a few things he cannot have faked. Connecting naturally with people, for one. But also, a honed ability to interrogate the logical underpinnings of business stories, with all of the various factors including market dynamics, product, strategy, partners, sales, supply chain, organizational design, financial model, etc. From what I hear around the business community, he has a very high IQ and EQ.
Which makes it all the more baffling to see Bob support the Interpreter, of all things he could choose to support in Mopologetics. True, his father Frank (Bill) funded the William Gay chair of Research which John Gee currently holds. So maybe it's a token of his loyalty to family and preservation of legacy. That could be enough, I suppose.
His speech, though, started with a long draft of sympathy, almost tearful, for what Dan Peterson has "gone through." And yet I just have to ask, does Bob have both sides of the story, or just Dan's? Looking at Bob's service over the past 15+ years, I sincerely doubt Bob has ever taken the time to look at the other side of the story when it comes to the methodological integrity of Dan Peterson, the Interpreter at large, and John Gee in particular. I doubt he has spent any time at all sorting through criticisms of DCP, Gee, or Interpreter, with the high-alert eye he most certainly will have brought to the process of buying & building companies.
I look at Bob and think, well, in his choice to give loyal service to the church (he retired from Bain Capital to be a mission president, and then served as Chairman of the Perpetual Education Fund as a Seventy) he also made a choice to turn a blind eye to what defenders of the church actually do with their platforms, degrees and mandates. It's all so much BS, but there's so much of it delving into arcane places, that even an intelligent person like Bob Gay would have to decide to either (Door #1) just trust them, or (Door #2) trust but verify, meaning taking the time to carefully interrogate their work. From his Interpreter 10-year speech, it's clear Bob has chosen door number 1 when it comes to Mopologetics. And that is his choice to make, but it kills my respect because I know for a fact that Door #1 is a choice Bob Gay could NEVER have gotten away with in his profession - not at McKinsey, not at Bain Capital, not with HGGC. Door #1 assures career suicide in the investing world.
So Gay seems willing to do the opposite with Mopologetics compared with his profession. Maybe he's just old and tired, or solving for family & church loyalty at this point. It's baffling to see someone of Bob Gay's stature out lending his name (and likely some of his impressive wealth) to the deans of Mopologetics.
I have more respect for Gay's partner at HGGC, Steve Young, who at least has shown the courage to distinguish dumb loyalty from tradition and community. Steve led a wonderfully brave "No on 8" movement in the Bay Area LDS community in 2008, much to the chagrin of Salt Lake City. Were it not for his last name, Young might have been ex'd for openly defying Monson's "Yes on 8" mandate to CA stake and local leaders. And now, it is one of the worst kept secrets in California that Steve and his wife are physically-in but mostly mentally-out. Bob Gay, however, by supporting the objectively dishonest work of Interpreter and Dan Peterson, gives every indication that he's checked his cumulative career acumen at the door for dumb loyalty.
He must certainly have developed an eye for evaluating strong business & people practices. He has decades of combined experience at premier names such as McKinsey, Bain Capital and as a co-founder of HGGC. To have created such a successful career, whether building or buying companies, there are a few things he cannot have faked. Connecting naturally with people, for one. But also, a honed ability to interrogate the logical underpinnings of business stories, with all of the various factors including market dynamics, product, strategy, partners, sales, supply chain, organizational design, financial model, etc. From what I hear around the business community, he has a very high IQ and EQ.
Which makes it all the more baffling to see Bob support the Interpreter, of all things he could choose to support in Mopologetics. True, his father Frank (Bill) funded the William Gay chair of Research which John Gee currently holds. So maybe it's a token of his loyalty to family and preservation of legacy. That could be enough, I suppose.
His speech, though, started with a long draft of sympathy, almost tearful, for what Dan Peterson has "gone through." And yet I just have to ask, does Bob have both sides of the story, or just Dan's? Looking at Bob's service over the past 15+ years, I sincerely doubt Bob has ever taken the time to look at the other side of the story when it comes to the methodological integrity of Dan Peterson, the Interpreter at large, and John Gee in particular. I doubt he has spent any time at all sorting through criticisms of DCP, Gee, or Interpreter, with the high-alert eye he most certainly will have brought to the process of buying & building companies.
I look at Bob and think, well, in his choice to give loyal service to the church (he retired from Bain Capital to be a mission president, and then served as Chairman of the Perpetual Education Fund as a Seventy) he also made a choice to turn a blind eye to what defenders of the church actually do with their platforms, degrees and mandates. It's all so much BS, but there's so much of it delving into arcane places, that even an intelligent person like Bob Gay would have to decide to either (Door #1) just trust them, or (Door #2) trust but verify, meaning taking the time to carefully interrogate their work. From his Interpreter 10-year speech, it's clear Bob has chosen door number 1 when it comes to Mopologetics. And that is his choice to make, but it kills my respect because I know for a fact that Door #1 is a choice Bob Gay could NEVER have gotten away with in his profession - not at McKinsey, not at Bain Capital, not with HGGC. Door #1 assures career suicide in the investing world.
So Gay seems willing to do the opposite with Mopologetics compared with his profession. Maybe he's just old and tired, or solving for family & church loyalty at this point. It's baffling to see someone of Bob Gay's stature out lending his name (and likely some of his impressive wealth) to the deans of Mopologetics.
I have more respect for Gay's partner at HGGC, Steve Young, who at least has shown the courage to distinguish dumb loyalty from tradition and community. Steve led a wonderfully brave "No on 8" movement in the Bay Area LDS community in 2008, much to the chagrin of Salt Lake City. Were it not for his last name, Young might have been ex'd for openly defying Monson's "Yes on 8" mandate to CA stake and local leaders. And now, it is one of the worst kept secrets in California that Steve and his wife are physically-in but mostly mentally-out. Bob Gay, however, by supporting the objectively dishonest work of Interpreter and Dan Peterson, gives every indication that he's checked his cumulative career acumen at the door for dumb loyalty.