Don't change the world • Hacker News Board

Re: Don't change the world

#11

Post by michokest » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 7:18 PM UTC

spullara wrote: post #5

repos wrote: post #2

Some of the points are valid, but you shouldn't generalize the situation. Very few people in the 90's woke up with the idea that they needed to be connected with someone on the other side of the world. But they eventually realized they did when they were shown the internet. Yeah sometimes you don't need to be "disruptive", but sometimes you do. And it's especially hard to realize which is appropriate when you are bui…

His point is that the ones that made the disruptive change like Netscape are not necessarily the ones that made the most money for the least effort. The people that saw the trend and momentum and went with it had an easier time and made more money more efficiently then the ones that actually changed the world. So even though there are counter examples you can't say they had an easy time of it or took the simplest pat…

Great example at Netscape! That was exactly my point. Major disruptions have already been started by others, and it's easier to ride that wave than starting a new one.

Re: Don't change the world

#12

Post by mcantor » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 8:12 PM UTC

All this post says is that it's easy to do something predictable and hard to do something novel.

Re: Don't change the world

#13

Post by philwelch » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 8:42 PM UTC

thaumaturgy wrote: post #6

Follow the advice in this post if you're looking for short-term profits and long-term mediocrity. If you're in business just for the money , then the points in this post are valid. But, then you should probably also be concentrating your efforts somewhere else entirely. Give up software and become a loan shark or a banker or something. If you're in business because the idea of doing anything else is boring and distas…

I think worldchanging vs. just making money is completely orthogonal to software vs. banking. For instance, microlenders like Kiva probably "change the world" orders of magnitude more than the typical internet startup.

Of all the businesses that add real value to my life, the number of them that "changed the world" can fit on one hand. The others are just honest business, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Re: Don't change the world

#14

Post by guard-of-terra » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 9:05 PM UTC

Bottled water business is a fraud.

I routinely see a plastic bottle of water costing 1.5x more than a glass bottle of fine lemonade at the same shop.

It goes like this: people drink a lot of bottled water -> big market -> two big bottled water brand nuke the marker with advertising -> shops begin to carry branded bottled water and drop unbranded bottled water, which costs 2x more -> a lot of people buy a half liter of advertising daily.

The problem is: They siphon money from peoples' pockets to the advertisers. They spend those to increase the level of noise.

And I believe the water quality is dismal, i.e. it's the same tap water and much worse than reverse osmosis filtered water from my tap filter.

I think it should actually be regulated and illegal. Then we'll get less noisy adds in our lives and two times cheaper bottled water from a variety of vendors, with its quality up.

Re: Don't change the world

#15

Post by billpatrianakos » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 10:21 PM UTC

No no no no no! This kind of thinking is for those in it for the money. If you're in anything for the money you won't get very far. It's not that this is wrong advice. Things do work the way he says but no one should be following this advice. Would you encourage your child to grow up to be mediocre or encourage the kid to be the best.

If selling a mediocre product is what you're passionate about then by all means go for it but do not look for the easy buck by doing so because it's just not there. Time and time again we're reminded as consumers that we don't know what we want until someone shows it to us. You can give the people what they want in a way that changes the world.

This whole thing is just wrong. It's hard to argue because it's right in a sense but at the same time no one should be approaching things in such a cynical way. Let's all just forget this was ever written and hope no one listens.

Re: Don't change the world

#16

Post by jtheory » Fri, Jan 06, 2012, 5:35 AM UTC

philwelch wrote: post #13

thaumaturgy wrote: post #6

Follow the advice in this post if you're looking for short-term profits and long-term mediocrity. If you're in business just for the money , then the points in this post are valid. But, then you should probably also be concentrating your efforts somewhere else entirely. Give up software and become a loan shark or a banker or something. If you're in business because the idea of doing anything else is boring and distas…

I think worldchanging vs. just making money is completely orthogonal to software vs. banking. For instance, microlenders like Kiva probably "change the world" orders of magnitude more than the typical internet startup. Of all the businesses that add real value to my life, the number of them that "changed the world" can fit on one hand. The others are just honest business, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Kiva isn't a good counter-example -- the reason they're "changing the world" isn't because they're doing banking as usual with good foresight into where the current customers want to go next; they've turned normal banking practice on its head (both in the source of the capital, in who borrows it, and how much they borrow), and that's precisely why they're important.

Though personally, I won't even argue that a startup needs to be "world-changing" to change the world. For example, a startup that simply makes it easier to get bottled water delivered directly homes in such a way that soon a huge population is drinking only bottled water...

...and no one (immediately) needs to fund the incredible environmental cost of trucking water everywhere to everyone even though they already have perfectly safe, good-tasting water available from their tap...

...so yes, that changes the world.

This is why I personally found this article depressing (for @#$%s sake, why not sell people water purifiers if they don't like the taste of their tap water??)

Every business changes the world -- mostly in a small way, though that's nothing to be ashamed of. Some in a big way. But all of them in some way.

It's really, really worth putting at least 10 minutes thought into whether your startup, especially if it's gloriously successful, will make the world a generally better place (even if just "people generally doing good things will have an easier time of it"), or will it make the world a generally worse place ("we found a way to stop people from returning merchandise they don't want", or maybe "we make wasting time more addictive").

The OP doesn't even seem to consider putting 10 seconds into this aspect of choosing a business -- into which you'll invest many years of your life. Ugh.

Re: Don't change the world

#17

Post by jtheory » Fri, Jan 06, 2012, 6:13 AM UTC

SatvikBeri wrote: post #10

Nobody likes "Don't change the world", but a lot of people love "Find and solve a customer's existing, urgent problem".

The distinction here is pretty dramatic with the example of bottled water.

Assuming that this business scenario is playing out in some country that has high-quality, well-monitored tap water, both of those entrepreneurs are in the business of convincing people to "solve a need" they don't actually have.

In this case, "don't change the world" means "notice that people are easily suckered into buying bottled water, and do that better".

Whereas "find and solve a customer's existing, urgent problem" could possible involve selling efficient and low-cost water purifiers (if people in some areas would prefer better-tasting tap water, I guess? I like mine), or more likely have nothing to do with drinking water whatsoever.