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I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
411–420 of 618 posts
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#412Hi Eric!
Sounds like an interesting topic!
> Why do good companies go bad
I find interesting the systemic explanation of Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith in "The Dictator's Handbook"^1: In any publicly traded company, if the executives (or the board) are not ready to do whatever it takes to maximize profit, they will be replaced by people who are. It becomes a selection process creating tyrants. If you're lucky (as employee, customer, or human living on the same planet), whatever it takes might be aligned with employees and customers' interest. When times are bad, whatever it takes has no limits, it becomes a question of survival or progression for business leaders.
I'm curious to see how much that maps with what you identified in your new book! Patagonia is private and under the control of a few benevolent dictators ; Costco and Nordisk are a bit more surprising, I'm keen to know more.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#413Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with your premise that the unethical behavior in the markets is structural. I also commend your work on this book. The creation of the LTSE is also a huge and laudable accomplishment. Kudos! However, I have to express some skepticism that through regulations and reforms, we can reverse the entire incentive structure for public investment to be aligned with stewardship rather than extraction. How do you plan t…
Ah! Your point about Claude Code is very funny. At a minimum, you can find links to many of the interviews I've done. If it comes across as too promotional, you can always use the "official" website incorruptible.co which is more staid. Your skepticism is well earned, and all I can really say is that I hope you'll read the book and judge for yourself. I tried really hard to lay out the evidence for two things that ar…
Thanks for being a good sport about my joke! And also thanks for answering a gazillion questions here on HN with care, patience, and curiosity.
I have to say, to your first point, that exploitation (of humans, labor, resources, consumers, etc.) has always been the primary driver of accumulating large wealth under capitalism. Sure, "innovation" sometimes has a role in softening the blow, but let's be real.
That was true in our grandparents' time... and their grandparents' time... and their grandparents' time. While their economies looked very different, the same structural incentives were in place and certainly did not curb unethical behavior one bit.
It has taken a long time for the piper to come for his full payment, but we can all see now that the world is burning, poisoned, and suffering as a result. We can no longer eat freshwater fish due to the massive amounts of PFAS in our lakes and rivers. The billionaires are trying to pretend they can escape the disaster by building their bunkers on remote islands or trying to colonize Mars.
I want to have some optimism in the newer generations to create positive change here, but I can't help but look at what happened to the idealism of the 1960s. The counter culture was right about the societal benefits of renewable energy, organic food, vegetarian diets, ecology, egalitarianism, civil rights, and more. But somewhere around Reagan many in that generation sold out and those great ideas were simply appropriated and fed back into the profit-machine that rewards exploitation. Today we have "certified organic" labels on food products, but that term has been watered down to almost nothing by the marketing departments, politicians, and lobbyists.
Anyhow, I obviously need to keep my pessimism at bay. LOL You have convinced me to give it a read!
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#414Congrats for publishing a new book. When I jumped into a startup, everyone seemed to have different definitions of MVP. So I just had to read your book The lean startup and realized that there is no one definition of MVP because every successful business can be different. The book also made me think a lot about profitability and got me into indie hacking mind. Although I read it just three years ago, it still held and helped me shape my views. Thanks. I will try to grab your new book someday for sure.
Now, here is my question. I personally got disappointed in how most “early” and “small” startups operate. I have short experience to be fair but their sole goal seems to be how to get funds and grants and how to get higher valuation. They didn’t have visions and sustainability in mind. It felt like they are doing gambling rather than running a business. What do you think of this and how would you explain?
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#415From the outside it seems like the long term stock exchange was a flop. Why do you think it failed to gain traction? Is it that HFT just isn’t relevant to enough key decision makers?
Not sure I agree with your assessment. From my perspective, it’s actually doing well: appropriately funded, its proposal for companies to optionally move quarterly earnings to semi-annual is supported by the SEC, and it trades the same stocks as the other two major exchanges. But it takes time to build something new and innovative.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#416Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recently had the chance to meet Abigail Disney, who has been a very vocal critic of what's happened to her grandfather's ethos. It sounds quite sad.
I recently left Disney after working there for almost 5 years. It's much worse on the inside than people realize. Very sad indeed.
From what I hear it seems like any other large labor hating corporation. Does Disney have a unique take on face stomping compared to Comcast or Walmart?
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#417I'd love to know how you got your book into the public eye. What kind of marketing and sales channels did you target to get noticed? Thanks
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#418Congrats for publishing a new book. When I jumped into a startup, everyone seemed to have different definitions of MVP. So I just had to read your book The lean startup and realized that there is no one definition of MVP because every successful business can be different. The book also made me think a lot about profitability and got me into indie hacking mind. Although I read it just three years ago, it still held an…
If you've been around the ecosystem long enough, you eventually realize how these cycles go. When startups are seen as trendy and a good/easy way to get rich, you get a lot of this gambling behavior in response. When the crash comes (just wait) a lot of those people get flushed out of the ecosystem, and things return to the original motivations: building, exploring, discovery.
I was talking the other day to a Silicon Valley OG and he expressed total disgust to me about the "mercenaries" who have overrun the valley right now and who are destroying the very things that made it great in the first place.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#419Was Frederic Laloux's work (Reinventing Organizations) an inspiration at all in your journey exploring these topics? Seems like very similar territory, albeit from a different perspective.
Not directly, although many people have pointed me towards his work since the book came out. I look forward to diving in.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#420Awesome. Can’t wait to read it. And thank you for your service.