Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 618 posts

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#211

Post by ngriffiths »

eries wrote: post #187
ngriffiths wrote: post #178

My biggest struggle with this question is that "going bad" sometimes coincides with not just financial incentives, but also more people getting value out of it. For example Spotify gradually shifting from "we make it easy to curate and share playlists" to "we make them for you to use as background music constantly." Sometimes what's bad for the early power user is great for the late adopter, and it's difficult to mak…

I don't have the link in front of me, but someone who used to work at Spotify wrote a really nice reflection about this change through the lens of incorruptible over on LinkedIn. If someone can find it and post it here, that'd be great. If not, I'll try to remember to come back and post it later. I think these changes very rarely have to do with what customers want shifting, but when people say "the market," they are…

I'm not just talking about where the initial pressure comes from, but the effects of the changes. I guess the question becomes about how easily these layers get disentangled. E.g. things investors like that then result in lower sales? Things that result in greater sales but that the customers don't actually like?

Naively of course it seems like investors don't like it when sales go down, so there'd be an extremely tight link between financial market and product market feedback. But I imagine you disagree, that this breaks down easily and creates problems?

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#213

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

The founders and business models of Costco, Patagonia and Novo Nordisk are so radically different from so-called "tech startup" founders^1 that one must consider this in any analysis

1. Who lack a legitimate business model hence have resorted to "data collection from/about computer users, surveillance of computer users even when engaged in non-commercial activity and online advertising services" with generally free, so-called "products" and "services" offered as bait

"There's a darkness in our industry that we often don't talk about."

It's "talked" about on HN but voters and commenters working for or aspiring to start/work for these companies don't like the discussion

100% probability this comment will be greyed out to try to hide it from people using graphical web browsers (no effect on monochrome text-only browser users)

The people that start "tech" companies are often soulless and maladapted to society, having hid behind computers to escape their inability to deal with the real world. There are also "tech startups" founded by people who want to take advantage of those who have hidden behind computers and lack social skills, using them as pawns

These founders and pawns do not start, nor do they want to work for, companies like Costco, Patagonia or Novo Nordisk because they only believe in what they see on a computer screen not the real world. They want to operate in Silicon Valley fantasy land

It really isn't surprising what happens to so-called "tech" companies over time considering what they start from

The author worked for Kleiner Perkins, SillyCon Valley VC

After listening to this guy you may feel like you need a shower

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#214

Post by Ozzie_osman »

eries wrote: post #115
Ozzie_osman wrote: post #74

Just dropping in to thank you for writing this book and raising awareness around it. A lot of builders are really disillusioned by how "corruptible" the tech industry has been. I wrote a blog post called "Revenue Model is More Important than Culture" (it made the #1 spot on HackerNews a few years ago) arguing that the way to avoid that corruption is by making sure the business model is immune to it, but having read y…

I wish I had read that blog post because that is one of the chapters in the new book. I actually think that the phrase "mission-driven" for most companies is a total lie. They are at best "mission-hopeful". In fact, I tried to create a new term for the work that is required: the management system, leadership techniques, and structural elements that are required to 100% align the business model with the mission. I cal…

I like the mix of management/leadership/structure. I do think leadership is an important aspect, and leaders who are uncompromising can have a big impact.

It's funny we both land on Google as a main example. I had this quote "I’m going to pick on Google a little bit here, but I do love that company. I think there’s a lot it can improve on, but it’s still one of my favorite and least “evil” large tech companies.", and honestly and sadly, I don't even know if I'd agree with the latter part of that statement anymore.

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#215

Post by eries »

saadn92 wrote: post #52

How do you use AI on a daily basis, and are there times when you don't?

Yes, I use AI quite a lot, and I worry a lot about the effect that technology is having on me. Luckily, I have the advantage of using a tool called Solve It from the company I helped found called Answer.ai with Jeremy Howard that is explicitly designed for human-in-the-loop creation of artifacts and the development of human skills even while you use AI. Otherwise, it's likely that LLMs will cause your own skills to atrophy. You can learn more at solve.it.com

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#216

Post by jppope »

eries wrote: post #157
eries wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tend to use the metaphor of trying to carve the Grand Canyon with nothing more than water and gravity, but I appreciate you honoring and acknowledging the difficulty of this. Honestly, I don't have formal criteria. I have young kids now, and I try to ask myself every once in a while, when they're old enough to really understand what I do for a living. When they ask me: "at that moment in history, what were you doin…

Oh, and thank you for the kind words. It's much appreciated.

well, thank you for kicking ass and doing great work!

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#217

Post by jh00ker »

I'm glad you're doing this. I am aware of _Incorruptible_ from seeing posts on LinkedIn, but from your description here, I now realize I'm going to love this book! I wasn't going to make time to check it out, but I will now!

Where does Apple fall on the Incorruptible spectrum? Is it covered in the book?

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#218

Post by storus »

Wouldn't simple (political) ponerology describe why does this happen to companies? It's the source of "hard times produce strong people, strong people produce good times..." cycle, and the observation that people who want to live easy lives embracing dark triad patterns slowly rise to the top, gaming perf stats, "playing the game", transforming the company/society underneath in the process.

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#219

Post by eries »

rdeboo wrote: post #16

Does "financial gravity" imply that noble missions are generally less profitable? Is there a way to align that (maybe by governments structuring the market with taxes / regulations)? Is that realistic?

You're going to find this hard to believe, but actually, mission-driven companies tend to outperform their conventional counterparts. The problem is that financial gravity tends to destroy them before they can become bona fide competitors. In the book, I mostly focus on what we as leaders can do to protect our organizations from this force. Of course, it'd be nice if the people who make market-related policy were busy trying to encourage and inspire and incentivize long-term thinking instead of short-term thinking. That would make all of our lives so much easier and so much better.
Post reply on HN