"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
In practice, the additional stress of starting a startup doesn't cause otherwise ethical people to behave unethically.
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It doesn’t? Huh.
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Also, the analogy is off in that startups are not a life or death situation. Even if failing to "build the plane", you'll still land on a big soft cushion. Some regrets, probably, but also a lot of experience and a larger network. So there is no real pressure to be an a-hole.
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Yep, it's just an analogy for life and death. Starting a start up isn't actually life or death, hence why you can maintain your ethics.
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In fact, the stress of building a startup separates the weak and unethical from the strong and ethical. A test of character.
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If there were more ethics in Startups there would be more trust and it would feel less like jumping off a cliff.... Either do it right or don’t do it at all. When you fake it you won’t ever truly make it.
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I think ethics are probably the same across all kinds of businesses. Newspapers tells me this. With startups, there are many more unknowns which are easy to get wrong. That’s the game and that’s the gamble. By definition the startups can’t know the best decisions
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But the problem is this kind of do or die/make things fast, break things fast attitude blurs the definition of ethics even for a completely ethical person. And imo the definition of ethics is so conveniently twisted in a startup environment in the name of hustle and passion
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The analogy is about converging to a definition of high quality of service in an undiscovered environment. Note that
@reidhoffman &@paulg also teach to prioritize co-founders with similar values and aptitude rather than skillsets to avoid unethical problems
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It's curious that substantially no one worries that someone's ethics will necessarily slide while getting married, having kids, doing a medical residency, or competing in elite sporting events, but it is widely believed that startup stress possesses some unique corrupting factor.
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"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."
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