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Be Good

paulgraham.com

161–170 of 209 posts

Re: Be Good

#161
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo had a great comeback with the Wii after the GameCube (and even the N64). Microsoft could do something similar, but I haven't seen any indication they will.

The Windows 7 team seems to recognize that they have to recover from a colossal screwup. Whether they understand what they need to do to make that happen -- and whether they can execute on those ideas -- I have no idea.

On the plus side, they only have to deliver something as good as XP to be considered a success. :)

Re: Be Good

#162
One thing I've realized personally about why good works: when you are evil, you can only fool those people who are less intelligent than you. You can bully only those people who are weaker than you. If you are very smart or very strong, that could be a lot of people, and you can benefit a lot, and you are necessarily setting a hard limit on the number of people who are willing to help you. When you are good, when you give more than you receive, the opposite is true. You gain the aid of those who are smarter and stronger than you, others who "get it" and who have chosen to commit to the "cooperate" branch of the Prisoner's Dilemma.

Re: Be Good

#163
post #56

When I was a kid I was firmly in the camp of bad. The way adults used the word good, it seemed to be synonymous with quiet, so I grew up very suspicious of it. You know how there are some people whose names come up in conversation and everyone says "He's such a great guy?" People never say that about me. The best I get is "he means well." I am not claiming to be good. At best I speak good as a second language. There…

aaronsw. you're one person I'd have expected to be mentioned in this essay. :-P

Re: Be Good

#164
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are your definitions of sin. Tobacco companies have been bad in the past for lying to their users. However, you could argue that many of these companies are being good to their users.

Good point. However, if "being good to your users" is the meaning of "good" in the article, then using the word "good" (with all its connotations) might be misleading. "Good" basically reduces to "do what your users want".

"Good" basically reduces to "do what your users want".

To be fair, PG makes the same connection in the essay, albeit in the opposite direction: "Make something people want. Don't worry too much about making money. What you've got is a description of a charity." And charity = good.

Arguably, tobacco companies make something people really, really want, but they do not fit the definition of charity or good, probably because while people really want tobacco, it's not in their long-term interests. In other words, there's a gap between what people want and what they should want, and the tobacco companies exploit this gap. So PG's description fits more things than just charities -- and he really doesn't argue otherwise; he simply chooses not to consider it in the essay.

There have been plenty of successful startups that similarly satisfy "Make something people want" but are of questionable benefit to their users' long-term interests: gambling, adult sites, online games, etc. Whether or not these endeavors constitute "evil" is, of course, a value judgment and depends on what you consider a long-term benefit. (The very idea that "good" and "evil" could be phrased in terms of short- and long-term benefits is interesting...)

Re: Be Good

#165
post #93
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, we don't view them as evil (or ourselves as good, for that matter). We have had good experiences ordering from Digi-Key as well. They have a lot of parts in stock and they ship things right away so we don't have any qualms with their service. I think that what frustrates Paul is that Digi-Key is actively trying to block innovation in part search because they don't want price competition. Part search today…

Part search today is like travel search in 1995. I used to go straight to American Airlines to buy tickets and that was fine but how much nicer is it to buy tickets online now? I even travel more because it is easier to find things. It is definitely nicer to buy tickets, but the race to the bottom in pricing has made the flying experience itself (not just the airport) a misery. There are predominately two options - b…

Like it or not the airlines have provided what the majority of customers want, low price. If most people wanted a great flying experience and were willing to pay more for it that is what you have seen. The way the industry exists today is just what the market dictated. If people care more about the experience of buying parts than the cost then you will see sites that factor in experience. Since the market seems to dictate that low cost is most important we see octopart being successful. Economics, plain and simple.

Re: Be Good

#166
post #94
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, we don't view them as evil (or ourselves as good, for that matter). We have had good experiences ordering from Digi-Key as well. They have a lot of parts in stock and they ship things right away so we don't have any qualms with their service. I think that what frustrates Paul is that Digi-Key is actively trying to block innovation in part search because they don't want price competition. Part search today…

Digi-Key is certainly not the only ones in this space that doesn't want price comparisons. What about McMaster-Carr? Not a chance in the world they are going to open up their pricing and availability to an Octopart site. Why? Well, I can't speak for them (although I worked there for 2.5 years), but I would guess it's because they want to maintain control. I don't think that necessarily makes them evil, however, becau…

I would guess it's because they want to maintain control. I don't think that necessarily makes them evil, however, because control can mean controlling the customer experience for the better.

Any claim that the desire to maintain control is only for entirely selfless reasons should always be met with the highest suspicion, as would any other claims that something superficially self-serving is actually done for selfless reasons.

Note that 'highest suspicion' != 'immediate condemnation'.

It is always possible that the superficially self-serving motivation is not what is truly driving a decision, but it's usually the way to bet (and you can be sure that it doesn't hurt), most especially at the emergent organizational/institutional level, rather than the personal.

Re: Be Good

#167

Hey PG, I bought www.benevolentcorporation.com a few months ago while thinking about these memes. I'll sell it to you for $5M ;-)

Looks like someone beat you to goodcompany.com -- a more clever name. :)

Re: Be Good

#168
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

_by displaying their public information_ What is public about it?

This information is freely available on their website (not to mention their widely distributed paper catalogs). Google has crawled much of Digi-Key's website and has this information on their servers. However, Digi-Key is specifically targeting Octopart (actually, I'm not sure if they're threatening Google, my uninformed guess is no though). The only thing we're doing differently than Google is distilling the informa…

Also note that courts have generally held that pricing information is not protectable by copyright (prior to publication it might be a trade secret, but once you publish it, it essentially becomes a fact in the public domain). This has not stopped large retailers from using novel legal theories (or carefully timed DMCA takedown requests) to stop or chill 'Black Friday' websites, of course, but the law is actually reasonably clear in this area.

Re: Be Good

#169
post #148
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really depends on your definition of self interest too. Benevolent people either think their benevolence benefits them materially, or gain satisfaction from altruism. Both are forms of self interest.

I personally think altruism is born the murkiest waters of self-interest. But discriptive psychalogical egoism skirts the the issue a bit and forks us into a long examination of the nature of the "soul". But, whether altruism is some measure "divine" (or symbolically derived), or born completely out of self-interest, there is a wide consensus on what it ought to look like. (egoism is an easy card play, we could pull…

I dunno. I think ideals exist, and that's what altruism is based on, at least the genuine kind. And I do think genuine altruism exists. However, I also agree that Nietszche's notion ressentiment also gets called altruism.

Re: Be Good

#170
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you don't think men have a significant problem with pornography addiction, and/or viewing porn has bad effects on relationships between men and women? Despite it being a conservative claim, and consequently people don't like it, the breakdown of the family is a very big problem.

I agree with you in principle. However, it seems that rape has declined with increasing exposure to pornography: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2006/06/rape-porn-and-crim...

Rape and murder and the like aren't the biggest problems. If you get rid of them by emasculating men and destroying human relationships, I'd say that's a bigger loss.
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