What is the relationship between technology and society? What happens to idealism over time? I’m fortunate to have discussed these questions and many more with Tim O’Reilly for this episode of The Eric Ries Show.

Tim is the founder of O’Reilly Media, which has provided countless programmers and technologists with foundational information for doing their work well. He’s also been a long-time witness to the changes and growth of tech, and has consistently looked far ahead of other people, perhaps most famously in his book What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us.

Many call Tim the Oracle of Silicon Valley. He thinks of himself more as “a voice in the wilderness” and someone who brings together people with great ideas to build new things. In our conversation, we covered how to build a business with a real ethos, how to gain competitive advantage by doing the right thing, and why thinking beyond the quarter, or even the year, is crucial for survival.

As he said, “Companies need to think about the long term, which is: who is going to provide what you are the gatekeeper for if you basically have a relentless acquisition of all the value for yourself?” Ultimately, he believes – and I couldn’t agree more – that “we need to build an economy in which the important things are paid for in self-sustaining ways rather than as charities to be funded out of the goodness of our hearts.”