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The founder of Craigslist has given away half a billion dollars

independent.co.uk

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Re: The founder of Craigslist has given away half a billion dollars

#151

Post by socalgal2 »

Quarrelsome wrote: post #100
foobarian wrote: post #87

I think he has given away a whole lot more than half a billion dollars when you think of the opportunity squandered to grow CL the way other unicorney companies grew

it was an intentional choice to not go big. I can seriously respect that. I feel like all these "big tech leaders" like Zuck or Musk have some pretty blatant mental health issues, its a path with significant drawbacks because that level of absurd wealth causes issues.

If your goals require trillions then millions are not enough. Craig’s goal = have a modest comfortable life. Musk’s goal = Make humanity a multi-planet species

Yes, now there will be arguments about if that’s really Musk’s goal. that’s beside the point. The point is some goals require money than others

Re: The founder of Craigslist has given away half a billion dollars

#153

Post by nunez »

a2tech wrote: post #39
roksprok wrote: post #27

Craigslist is often held up as an example of a company "doing it right", but what is never mentioned in these posts is that a large portion of their revenue comes from facilitating scams. Around 25% of rooms/apartments I contact are scams, and Craigslist has so far done nothing to prevent these. A common scam is to take pictures from a real estate site of a house that recently sold and advertise it as for rent, but t…

Airbnb has the same exact problem. Also doesn’t seem to give a crap when they’re reported.

Except AirBnB _does_ make money off of those scam listings.

Re: The founder of Craigslist has given away half a billion dollars

#154

Post by nunez »

Quarrelsome wrote: post #100
foobarian wrote: post #87

I think he has given away a whole lot more than half a billion dollars when you think of the opportunity squandered to grow CL the way other unicorney companies grew

it was an intentional choice to not go big. I can seriously respect that. I feel like all these "big tech leaders" like Zuck or Musk have some pretty blatant mental health issues, its a path with significant drawbacks because that level of absurd wealth causes issues.

Hoarding at scale, but with money instead of gnomes.

Re: The founder of Craigslist has given away half a billion dollars

#155

Post by scosman »

vrinsd wrote: post #147

Sadly, I think Craig might have done MORE for society by simply improving Craig's List and removing/reducing the amount of spam and junk posts it allows. I can't claim the changes would be easy to implement, but if they made a FEW small changes the result would be 1000x better. For example if you want to sell something on Craig's List they do some "you can't make this post because it looks too similar to a previous p…

Yeah totally agree! My pet peeve feature list is also better for society than donating $500M to charity!

Re: The founder of Craigslist has given away half a billion dollars

#156

Post by sudo_cowsay »

bluedino wrote: post #8
helterskelter wrote: post #6

I don't know much about this guy, but I remember reading an interview with him maybe 15 years ago where he was asked if his lifestyle had changed since he came into money and if he bought a new house or anything, and his answer was basically something like: "Not really, and I've already got good water pressure where I'm at, what else do I need?" I can't help but like his attitude.

He apparently bought this place in 2016: https://streeteasy.com/blog/craigslist-property/

Looks cozy and nice. Pretty humble/modest for a guy like that.

Re: The founder of Craigslist has given away half a billion dollars

#157

Post by rayiner »

keeda wrote: post #143
rayiner wrote: post #16

We are almost two decades into the age of billionaire philanthropy and what’s results has it produced? Can you point to any area where it’s really changed the world? I think a fundamental problem is that the non-profit/NGO sector doesn’t have the same caliber of people as the private sector. There’s no Jeff Bezos equivalent working on inner city education. Bill Gates is really the only one who has tackled this, by in…

This is a common refrain of many people, but I believe it is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of philanthropy and charities in general. They don't really exist to "fix" problems, they are mostly a band-aid over the structural issues that lead to social problems. The long-term solutions to most of these problems involve policy changes rather than "spot fixes" Like, funding a homeless shelter or the Trevor Proj…

> They don't really exist to "fix" problems, they are mostly a band-aid over the structural issues that lead to social problems. The long-term solutions to most of these problems involve policy changes rather than "spot fixes"

Non-profits are 12% of GDP, over $3.5 trillion. Excluding hospitals, universities, and churches, leaves over $2 trillion in non-profit expenditures. Of that, about $300 billion comes from the government. That is more than enough money to solve structural issues.

My dad spent his career in non-profits working on public health in third world countries. These NGOs were able to work with highly dysfunctional foreign governments to achieve real and measurable improvements in some of the poorest countries in the world. Which is why it blows my mind that non-profits spending vastly more money domestically can’t work with e.g. the government of Baltimore to deliver meaningful improvements to the abysmal literacy rates in that city, or work in infant morality in inner cities.

The key difference it seems to me is the lack of accountability in domestic non-profits. The U.S., EU, Japan, etc., care how their foreign aid dollars are used. Every project is evaluated for effectiveness in quantitative terms. That culture of measured accountability seems entirely absent in domestic non-profits.

Re: The founder of Craigslist has given away half a billion dollars

#158

Post by hamdingers »

roksprok wrote: post #27

Craigslist is often held up as an example of a company "doing it right", but what is never mentioned in these posts is that a large portion of their revenue comes from facilitating scams. Around 25% of rooms/apartments I contact are scams, and Craigslist has so far done nothing to prevent these. A common scam is to take pictures from a real estate site of a house that recently sold and advertise it as for rent, but t…

> Craigslist has so far done nothing to prevent these

You could make your point without this lie. Craigslist moderators are both very active and quick to respond. Their moderation system is explained on the website. Try flagging scams when you see them.

Re: The founder of Craigslist has given away half a billion dollars

#159

Post by ForHackernews »

roksprok wrote: post #27

Craigslist is often held up as an example of a company "doing it right", but what is never mentioned in these posts is that a large portion of their revenue comes from facilitating scams. Around 25% of rooms/apartments I contact are scams, and Craigslist has so far done nothing to prevent these. A common scam is to take pictures from a real estate site of a house that recently sold and advertise it as for rent, but t…

If only 25% of one section of CL is scams, that puts it well ahead of the cryptocurrency industry, the social media industry, the adtech industry and the AI industry.

Re: The founder of Craigslist has given away half a billion dollars

#160

Post by gleenn »

helterskelter wrote: post #6

I don't know much about this guy, but I remember reading an interview with him maybe 15 years ago where he was asked if his lifestyle had changed since he came into money and if he bought a new house or anything, and his answer was basically something like: "Not really, and I've already got good water pressure where I'm at, what else do I need?" I can't help but like his attitude.

I had the privilege of working and sleeping in the original Craigslist office/house in San Francisco. It was just another typical, ageing house they had rearranged a little to have a ton of deskspace in the main area. A lot of start ups (including Zappos IIRC) had also been there over the years. They had a mattress in the loft/attic you could crash on if you were up late too.
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