Not relevant at all, but would you happen to be a descendant of Heinz/Henry Ries, the photographer? (Reading Joseph Pearson's book on the Berlin airlift, in which he features prominently, do your last name stood out...)
nope, it's a coincidence
I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
311–320 of 618 posts
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#312No question, really - just wanted to say thanks for evangelizing this topic. I'm originally a medical doctor who converted to the ways of computer science, now a founder in the bio space. One thing I've consistently wrestled with is how to structurally defend our company's ability to "first, do no harm." I think the misguided incentives you raise warning about are also the primary reason for the defects we see in our…
thank you!
Healthcare is a recurring topic in the book, for the reasons you specify. In fact, I call for the adoption of a Director's Oath similar to the Hippocratic Oath for boards. They can do just as much - or even more - harm.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not an academic, so no, I have not done any of these studies, but good news, everyone: other people have. The specific structure of Nova Nordisk is not just a foundation. I think the two-entity structure, where a foundation oversees or governs a for-profit company, is uniquely suited to longevity of a mission precisely because it combines the stewardship orientation of the foundation with the performance orientat…
Do you have any thoughts on Mozilla? It has a two-entity structure, but there are a lot of complaints that it is not sticking to its mission (or, slightly differently, that it's not succeeding at it, due to poor strategic choices). (Apologies if you already addressed this somewhere. Thanks for doing this)
I know they are going through a big restructuring and I think these issues are part of why, but I am not close enough to the details to comment.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was at Google when it pulled out of China. GP's post reminds me a lot of early Google - it wasn't evil because there were people in high places, who were critical to its operations, who cared deeply about doing the right thing , and as a result other people who cared about doing the right thing felt like they had cover, and people who were willing to do the wrong thing to hit a short-term number found that they wer…
> A lot of it also had to do with declining market power: when Google was universally on top, they felt like they could do the right thing without serious negative consequences, but when they were fighting for control of a market, they felt they had to make compromises lest some other firm (being honest: Facebook) would end up in power and do the wrong thing anyway. I would argue it's not a real value if you are not…
> It is only a true value if you are willing to do the right thing when you cannot get away with doing the right thing.
In reality, neither corporate nor personal values are binary, all-or-none propositions. They are more like springs that push you in the right direction. But if something pulls hard enough in the wrong direction, a spring can be overpowered.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
I got so frustrated that this is so difficult for people at the early stages to do with most law firms that I actually helped start a new law firm (called Virgil) to do it properly. Virgil is an AI-powered law firm, but it doesn't let the AI do the legal work for you. It actually hires and trains human lawyers to become AI-powered superhumans. It handles lots of the really unpleasant back-office crap that early-stage…
I might be missing something here but the Virgil website doesn't appear to have a CTA / Get Started / Sign Up / Contact Form or any other way to get in touch?
I see a "book a call" button in the lower-right, at least on chrome/macos. Apologies if it's not working on other platforms. TBH, the team has been so overwhelmed with word-of-mouth leads, they probably have neglected the website-entry pathway. We are working hard to scale up so that they can accommodate more demand and then will probably also have time to get a working website :)
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
I got so frustrated that this is so difficult for people at the early stages to do with most law firms that I actually helped start a new law firm (called Virgil) to do it properly. Virgil is an AI-powered law firm, but it doesn't let the AI do the legal work for you. It actually hires and trains human lawyers to become AI-powered superhumans. It handles lots of the really unpleasant back-office crap that early-stage…
Thanks a ton! I have called several local firms about these structures and it hasn't been very successful (note; i have complex requirements in addition to wanting the protections in your book). One other thing i've grappled with while reading the book is this: Some of the internal issues you describe seem to come from companies growing too big. The Founders who lose control, weakening culture etc. The size of a comp…
Staying small is definitely one way to increase your "span of control" over what happens. But honestly, size is not as much up to you as you think. If you hit product/market fit, you often will be forced to scale up whether you really want to or not. Better to have a structure that can handle it.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, there hasn't been that much pushback, and I've done something like 200 interviews for the book. I think it might have to do with the fact that we all secretly kind of agree with this thesis, even though we know we're not supposed to say so out loud. I'm sure there will be some pushback coming, especially if the book starts to become more popular or gets more famous. Though I did get a pretty funny piece of…
Q3: Direct question: Have journalists and their industries been similarly corrupted from their proclaimed mission to communicate the truth? Do the issues in other groups of people (charity, religion, sport league) share the same root causes, or is the source of corporate corruption unique or at a different scale?
Yes, I think the causes and symptoms are the same across sectors.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#318Reminds me of the question “why do good people go bad?” What are invisible forces? What is good? What is evil? Physicists, philosophers and theologians alike think about those questions. Do those questions need a foundation on which they stand to be answered? What is that foundation (are there relative foundations or are they by definition absolute?)?. Is there a moral standard that those handful of companies share?…
Yes, ultimately this is a deep philosophical question. I know most people think it's foolhardy to traverse such waters in a "business book" but I don't mind. If you pay careful attention to the structure of this one, you'll see it's not really a business book at all, at least not in the way the form is normally understood.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
You've framed this question as if these things are separate phenomena, but from my point of view, they are all symptoms of the same underlying cause. The sad truth is that, as I say in the book, "It's always too early until it's too late." The truth is we don't ever know if something is too late until we try. If you love an organization and you think you have the opportunity to try to help them get better, go for it.…
Would you relate this phenomenon to entropy? Ie founders create order out of chaos, then entropy slowly creeps in due to X,Y,Z? I loved the lean startup I'll be reading this book as well :)
I don't love entropy as the metaphor, because entropy is inevitable. And yet, some organizations seem to not experience it. These exceptions demonstrate that there must be some other variable involved.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having values doesn't mean they're "the right" values nor the same as your values. Regardless, it's still atypical in the context of an American company, and it can help explain the differences between Anthropic and its peers. That doesn't mean I agree with their decisions or that they're "the right" decisions, but I think it's a helpful framing in which to understand them.
Is “having values” just “stubborn” then?
I think the difference is the ability to be persuaded by a strong argument that you've critically evaluated.
Some people are unjustly called stubborn when they don't change their position based on a weak argument from an authority figure. And others claim values, but they're just stubbornly adhering to something that feels good to believe.