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

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

#481

Post by jimbokun » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:21 AM UTC

samiv wrote: post #475

Was it "financial gravity" that made the decision at VW to install emission cheat devices? Was it "financial gravity" that made the decision at Google to cheat at the ad exchange? Was it "financial gravity" that made the decision at DuPont to dump toxic sludge in the environment and make unsafe products? Or perhaps was it just a group of immoral people chasing more personal gain and wealth? Humans are too weak and to…

Those all sound 110% like "financial gravity" to me?

I mean, all of those are examples motivated by sacrificing other principles to make more money.

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

#482

Post by Andrex » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:32 AM UTC

eries wrote: post #151

mehulashah wrote: post #135

Eric - I've worked for NASA, ATT, IBM, HP, Amazon, and Google, not to mention a couple of startups that I started in between. None of them (except the startups, but they were brief) stayed true to their original mission. I haven't read your new book, but IMO, it's because the founders leave and the next leadership don't share the vision or values of the founders in the same way. After all, a company is a collaboratio…

One of the sad truths that the book tries to confront about the world we live in today: that most companies simply fail the test of succession. This does not have to be the reality that we live in. It is absolutely 100% possible to build organizations to resist gravity and even to transform organizations that have fallen into its clutches. The fact that this is rare tells you something about the incentive design and…

I've always admired Nintendo (NCL) for adequately managing their various successions, even in the case of sudden death (Satoru Iwata). I wish there were deep dives into their practices but they're very secretive.

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

#483

Post by samiv » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:34 AM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #481

samiv wrote: post #475

Was it "financial gravity" that made the decision at VW to install emission cheat devices? Was it "financial gravity" that made the decision at Google to cheat at the ad exchange? Was it "financial gravity" that made the decision at DuPont to dump toxic sludge in the environment and make unsafe products? Or perhaps was it just a group of immoral people chasing more personal gain and wealth? Humans are too weak and to…

Those all sound 110% like "financial gravity" to me? I mean, all of those are examples motivated by sacrificing other principles to make more money.

so let's call it what it is then? Corrupt individuals instead of "financial gravity"

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

#484

Post by Andrex » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:34 AM UTC

zaphar wrote: post #268

eries wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the sad truths that the book tries to confront about the world we live in today: that most companies simply fail the test of succession. This does not have to be the reality that we live in. It is absolutely 100% possible to build organizations to resist gravity and even to transform organizations that have fallen into its clutches. The fact that this is rare tells you something about the incentive design and…

Like a lot of things, bad actors only have to get you to fail the test of succession once while the company has to succeed at it every time. Time is not on any companies side here and the longer it goes the more failing that test of succession starts to look like a law of nature.

Ultimately, nothing lasts forever and entropy takes all.

Thinking about this problem and extending the average company life seem like worthwhile endeavors while we're trapped on this ball of mud.

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

#485

Post by eries » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:48 AM UTC

IIAOPSW wrote: post #474

I'll give you a read. If you haven't read it already, I strongly recommend the Knapp Commission Report. Its about police corruption in New York City in 1972, but its lessons on systemic and institutionalized corruption are highly transferable to other contexts. Probably the most common naive mistake I see is people thinking their subfield is special and they are the first to really notice / understand fraud within it…

Thanks for the suggestion

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

#486

Post by logifail » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:49 AM UTC

bruce511 wrote: post #479

jameslk wrote: post #461

Eric, thank you for taking time to answer questions! I read The Lean Startup early in my career and it shaped a lot of it. I’m keen to read your new book As I read through your comments, one question popped into my head: what’s your thoughts about the Friedman doctrine ? Do you address it in your book? Specifically, the Friedman doctrine makes the argument that the social responsibility of the firm is to increase its…

I'm not Eric, and I'm not an economist, but I'd suggest this quote is mostly used to drive up profits for shareholders, and not for the benefit of the other two constituencies. For example, we bought a company, and over the next year or so doubled wages in that company. Our "social responsibility" in that case was to spend shareholder money so that workers had a living wage. That doesn't seem to be the story I hear a…

> For example, we bought a company, and over the next year or so doubled wages in that company. Our "social responsibility" in that case was to spend shareholder money so that workers had a living wage. That doesn't seem to be the story I hear about say Amazon. Yes, we've also spent money outside of those 3 groups. We contribute to charity.

I would suggest that there is also some degree of (subconscious?) expectation of higher wages meaning: staff would be happier/performance would be higher/staff retention would be better/absence would be lower.

You weren't just giving (shareholder) money away. You were trying to optimise your team.

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

#487

Post by eries » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:49 AM UTC

jameslk wrote: post #461

Eric, thank you for taking time to answer questions! I read The Lean Startup early in my career and it shaped a lot of it. I’m keen to read your new book As I read through your comments, one question popped into my head: what’s your thoughts about the Friedman doctrine ? Do you address it in your book? Specifically, the Friedman doctrine makes the argument that the social responsibility of the firm is to increase its…

Yes, indeed, this is discussed extensively in Chapter Four

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

#488

Post by eries » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:50 AM UTC

bruce511 wrote: post #479

jameslk wrote: post #461

Eric, thank you for taking time to answer questions! I read The Lean Startup early in my career and it shaped a lot of it. I’m keen to read your new book As I read through your comments, one question popped into my head: what’s your thoughts about the Friedman doctrine ? Do you address it in your book? Specifically, the Friedman doctrine makes the argument that the social responsibility of the firm is to increase its…

I'm not Eric, and I'm not an economist, but I'd suggest this quote is mostly used to drive up profits for shareholders, and not for the benefit of the other two constituencies. For example, we bought a company, and over the next year or so doubled wages in that company. Our "social responsibility" in that case was to spend shareholder money so that workers had a living wage. That doesn't seem to be the story I hear a…

FWIW, Friedman himself I think would be quite scandalized by what passes for normal business practice today.

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

#489

Post by eries » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:51 AM UTC

samiv wrote: post #483

jimbokun wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those all sound 110% like "financial gravity" to me? I mean, all of those are examples motivated by sacrificing other principles to make more money.

so let's call it what it is then? Corrupt individuals instead of "financial gravity"

By this logic, there are no such thing as psychological forces or institutional structures that affect human behavior unconsciously. I don't think that can quite be right. If you read the book, you can see the much more detailed and (I hope) rigorous argument, and then judge for yourself.

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

#490

Post by eries » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:51 AM UTC

jkingsbery wrote: post #468

Not a question, just thought I'd throw out that I worked through Black Art of Java Game Programming when I was learning Java in 1997 or so. I still have my copy because I don't like getting rid of books. I found it really helpful for learning patterns for building medium sized software projects. I hadn't realized that you wrote that until years later when you mentioned something about it in The Startup Way.

No way! I would absolutely love to hear what you thought of that book. In fact, you may be the first person I've ever interacted with who actually read it!