Live data from Hacker News

The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

orchidfiles.com

71–80 of 238 posts

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#71
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We're talking about a product built to make people's lives worse while extracting wealth from them that get them addicted as well. That's most of the products being sold today, you think the most for-profit companies sell things and services in order to improve the world? They're selling stuff because they want to make money, if they can make someone addicted + extract wealth from them, then in their world that's a…

> That's most of the products being sold today That's just not true at all. The fruit I buy is designed to make my life worse? The vacuum cleaner? The lawn mower? The workout equipment? The standing desk for my office? The clothing I buy?

Yes, literally all those things are decreasing in quality because the companies producing and selling these want higher margins. Have you not noticed the sharp drop in quality and durability in made stuff compared to 20-30 years ago? Almost all those things are worse and lasts less today than they used to.

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#72
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the original person you replied to, but as far as I'm concerned there are a few questions that could very easily indicate which side of the line is something. E.g. - Is it addictive? - Does it have the potential to destroy lives? - Does it have the potential to destroy lives in seconds? - Does it have a strong lobbying mechanism behind it? (n.b. things that are good and nice rarely need someone to bribe people to…

These questions sound very rational until you realize that sugar, performance cars, military technology and history lessons can tick all those boxes.

Can you recommend a history lesson that will destroy my life in seconds? Book, podcast, youtube would all be acceptable formats.

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#73
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example, porn meets some actual human needs and has a certain function - but gambling? Simple abuse at scale. Now I'm as as free-minded as people typically gets, but both of those are just "entertainment" for me, one is not more "essential" than the other, what exact "human need" does pornography meet that somehow gambling doesn't also meet, since we're not talking about "fun" or "entertainment" here but someth…

While the porn industry has issue, at its core it isn't constructed to extract money from you. Boiling Gambling down to just being "entertainment" is a bit too reductionist in my opinion.

> While the porn industry has issue, at its core it isn't constructed to extract money from you.

For what purpose do you think that industry was indirectly created for, if not to make money from people? Even if it might not have been created with that intent (although I'd still argue it was), today it surely is mainly driven and maintain with the (at least) implicit purpose of extracting money from people, that's literally why we call it an "industry" instead of just a "community".

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#74

> A regular provider charges a regular commission but will not work with you, while another will want a commission 10 times higher and will agree, but may stop working with you at any time. I know I will get downvoted for this because it is an unpopular opinion, but this exactly the reason why we need bitcoin as a means of payments without any middlemen involved.

The miners are the middlemen, and they can chose to take your transaction or not. Should bitcoin ever be actually used for payment, it's not to too far fetched to think miners could be forbidden to validate transactions involving a blacklist of addresses...

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These questions sound very rational until you realize that sugar, performance cars, military technology and history lessons can tick all those boxes.

Can you recommend a history lesson that will destroy my life in seconds? Book, podcast, youtube would all be acceptable formats.

[flagged]

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#76
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's most of the products being sold today That's just not true at all. The fruit I buy is designed to make my life worse? The vacuum cleaner? The lawn mower? The workout equipment? The standing desk for my office? The clothing I buy?

Yes, literally all those things are decreasing in quality because the companies producing and selling these want higher margins. Have you not noticed the sharp drop in quality and durability in made stuff compared to 20-30 years ago? Almost all those things are worse and lasts less today than they used to.

Do you feel and have the subjective experience of feeling like you're arguing in good faith right now?

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#77
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's most of the products being sold today That's just not true at all. The fruit I buy is designed to make my life worse? The vacuum cleaner? The lawn mower? The workout equipment? The standing desk for my office? The clothing I buy?

Yes, literally all those things are decreasing in quality because the companies producing and selling these want higher margins. Have you not noticed the sharp drop in quality and durability in made stuff compared to 20-30 years ago? Almost all those things are worse and lasts less today than they used to.

There's some cases where that may be true, but they listed a few:

* fruit - I can get any fruit anytime in the year, and it seems fine

* vacuum cleaner - my Miele is still running ten years later and still available new

* The lawn mower - the M18 mower cuts great and uses no gas and just works - much better than the previous PoS

* workout equipment - I don't have much here, but my rowing machine is still going strong

* standing desk - the uplift desk seems quite good quality

* clothing - this might be the only one, but even the walmart crap I get is better than the walmart crap from a decade ago

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#78
post #62

I cannot care less what (legal) porn content people consume in the intimacy of their room. I cannot understand being prude about this. Like all things, over-use is unhealthy, but I have yet to see studies proving the societal damage caused by porn. Before you ask: the loneliness epidemic (which intuitively translates to more porn consumption) is just a symptom of people losing a "third place" to socialize, or not hav…

   and uncontrolled urban sprawl with no public transit.
*sub-urban sprawl. If you're sprawling, you've exited "urban".

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#79
post #15

> When posting job openings, you will always have to beat around the bush, without using direct language. And only then, when the candidate has already agreed to an interview or even after it, do you tell them what kind of content they will be working with every day. > Employees join such projects for various reasons. Some realize that the pay is better than in legitimate projects. Others come because they couldn’t f…

> I think OP made this whole article up.

Thanks for reading! When writing this essay, I drew solely on my own experience. I’ve often noticed that startups post job listings with misleading job descriptions, especially in stigmatized industries. It’s only after the interview that they reveal what the work will actually entail. Perhaps you simply haven’t noticed such job listings.

Post reply on HN