"Building a startup is like Someone who jumps off a cliff and builds a plane on the way down"
@reidhoffman
So here is what i have to ask, how can ethics/being fair be your priority while falling of a cliff? Imo this analogy is normalising the lack ethics in startups
cc @paulg
-
-
"Congrats on having a child! Just don't feed them sawdust." "What." "Well having a child is stressful." "That is true but..." "And stress leads you to cut corners." "I would not cut that corner." "Stress also leads you to lie about it. So, no sawdust. I'm watching."
-
Without regulation commerce is effective at rewarding unscrupulous behavior beyond the "relief" of reducing stress - "move fast and break things" is also not a popularized pillar of child rearing/marriage and unconditional love is not a central ethic of entrepreneurship
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
I don't think it's the stress, I think it's the competition and the fact that doing a startup already selects for ego, risk-seeking behavior, ambition/greed, and a willingness to do whatever it takes. Unrelenting pressure to perform.
-
I think "building a plane mid air" analogy covers not only the stress but everything else you just mentioned here.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
It's a meme often resorted to by journalists who are either lazy or have an axe to grind (or both). Readers believe it because the growth rate of successful startups is so counterintuitively high that it seems like some form of cheating is needed to explain it.
-
I remember one article in the NYT purporting to show a pattern of bad behavior by successful founders, and the reporter was so hard-pressed to find a third example that he had to use the fact that Parker Conrad got bad grades in college.
- 3 more replies
New conversation -
-
-
Elite sports definitely has an ethics problem (see: e.g. cycling and baseball in the last 20 years). The thing they share with startups - and not marriage or your other examples as much - is that they are worlds where acting unethically can increase the likelihood of success.
-
and living only in a startup ecosystem (and echo chamber) and the pressure to succeed as measured by a single metric
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
I dunno, I think bribing your C-student teen into an Ivy League school is exactly the kind of ethical lapse that the pressures of parenting brings about.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Or perhaps it’s that getting married, having kids, doing a residency, and competing in elite sporting events don’t involve the creation of a legal entity whose primary purpose is to make money. Arguably there are incentives for spouses, parents, and doctors to behave ethically.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.