"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
-
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.
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.
-
In my experience (and I have a lot of data about both), journalists writing about startups cut more ethical corners than the founders they write about.
- Show replies
New conversation -
-
-
I believe it is much easier to cut corners at a public company that you are a manager of than a company you found. Different incentives and different skin in the game.
-
Something like Theranos is exceptional in that it is fairly unique-there are plenty of bad investments that fail but few that produce minimal/no revenue or product and still close multiple funding rounds.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
If your integrity depends upon circumstances, then you never had any in the first place. Not sure why this isn't more commonly known.
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.