21–30 of 66 posts
in the bible, the devil had the power to offer Christ all power and riches of this world, which Christ refused
i think about that a lot
The idea that only sociopaths succeed is an artefact of what we observe. And what we observe is driven by which narratives get turned into stories about business success, into hagiographies about politicians and businesspeople, and into folklore.
Everyone wants to talk about what a horrible person Steve Jobs was, nobody wants to talk about any of the tens of thousands of multi-millionaires who are running decent businesses, and who may not be saintly figures, but they aren't asking new hires to sign away their right to a bathroom break, either.
There's a really fantastic book I recommend everyone read about success, it was popular a couple of decades ago:
The Millionaire Next Door: http://www.thomasjstanley.com
It was recommended to me by a man who was a centi-millionaire at the time. He owned one car, a Volvo Estate, and his partner would drive him to the commuter train to his office in a building he owned and where he could easily have as many parking spaces as he wanted.
He was driven and very successful. I asked him if the money changed anything. He told me:
"Yes. We used to drive to [Grateful] Dead concerts and camp. Now we can afford to fly, and even take our friends."
The message of the book is that the reality of moderately wealthy people and business owners is very, very different from what sells copies of business magazines.
I believe that very strongly to this exact day. Also, I work for a CEO is is not a complete sociopath, so I'm up to n=2 for my experience.
Only a Sith deals in absolutes, but I do think the odds of success are tilted in favour of greedy manipulative liars and against kind, honest, decent folk. We used to have religion to convince people that it was OK because the rich were getting the short end of the stick in eternity, but now it's just sad. The best people I know are nurses getting paid pennies to keep people alive. The world sucks. Sorry.
https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/registered-nurse/...
Only a Sith deals in absolutes, but I do think the odds of success are tilted in favour of greedy manipulative liars and against kind, honest, decent folk. We used to have religion to convince people that it was OK because the rich were getting the short end of the stick in eternity, but now it's just sad. The best people I know are nurses getting paid pennies to keep people alive. The world sucks. Sorry.
The average salary for a Registered Nurse is $75K. Perhaps it should be higher but that's hardly pennies; it's well above the median. https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/registered-nurse/...
Contrarian proposition here: The idea that only sociopaths succeed is an artefact of what we observe. And what we observe is driven by which narratives get turned into stories about business success, into hagiographies about politicians and businesspeople, and into folklore. Everyone wants to talk about what a horrible person Steve Jobs was, nobody wants to talk about any of the tens of thousands of multi-millionaire…
He once stopped by my small apartment to pick up a document I wrote for a pitch or financing or something. He looked around at my furnishings, and said:
"This reminds me of the apartment we had in Montréal when we were still in university. We had some good times there."
Very much not a sociopath. Yet very successful.
How do you cultivate sociopathy? I took a personality disorder quiz and scored high on everything except the dark triad. Because of that quiz score, I’m worried that my earning potential is not as high as it could be if I was otherwise a high functioning psychopath. I’m totally serious btw, any tips are appreciated.
It's time for me to tell you to read the Gervais Principle!
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-...
I am literally writing a pitch deck right now (just for fun). My solution statement includes stuff like "respecting the user - no tracking, no selling data, no dark patterns"... deep down I doubt any investor would even look at this and would laugh at the naivety. They would look at FB, Reddit and others and, naturally, want a piece of that pie. Unfortunately, I think the better way to get funding would be to say: *…
If Duckduckgo were trying to raise (assuming they had good growth metrics) and they said: look because people enter search terms we can generate targeted ads with no tracking, no dark patterns, etc. People value privacy a lot more these days (see FB tanking in value) and we will capture that market. I think a lot of investors would bite.
If your hypothesis is "look people would rather pay than be sold" and your product is a /paid/ social networking site with 50% growth MoM for a few months and great retention. Then great, let's hear all about it.
If you're just starting some generic product with no revenue and "no tracking no selling data no dark patterns" is some unrelated value prop that 0.1% of users (all of whom browse HN) care about. Then it's just a signal that your voice inside your own head is probably so loud that it'll drown out whatever the market is trying to tell you.