Let's say you're only allowed to write one more book for the rest of your life, what topic would you write about?
I just did. I can't really imagine what I would want to write about next. I guess if I'm lucky enough to live long enough, we'll see.
I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
571–580 of 618 posts
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#572What's the single biggest mistake you've personally made when advising a company on governance, something you'd do differently today?
All the mistakes, pretty much, are in the category of not fighting hard enough to protect the company or the founder. I tell a couple stories like this that still haunt me to this day, where I just feel like maybe, maybe, maybe if I had laid down across the tracks and made a big histrionic stink about it, maybe I could have gotten them to take it a little bit more seriously. On the other hand, maybe I just wasn't strong enough and didn't have the power, and there was nothing I could do. I'll never know.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#573Do you have any policy recommendations for governments that could help public companies preserve their culture?
Right now, in most developed countries and especially in the United States, the defaults for corporate governance are set to a very extractive batch of so-called best practices. Organizations that want to have longevity, be mission-driven, and protect themselves have to proactively and at their own expense change away from the defaults. We could certainly imagine resetting those defaults to something more aligned to human flourishing.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#574Eric, 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…
> the Friedman doctrine makes the argument that the social responsibility of the firm is to increase its profits. That policy making should be left to governments.
> His theory was introduced in 1970 and it seems has since become the standard for the corporate world
questions: WHY has it become the standard? Should it still be the standard-- the world has changed a lot since 1970, is the context that supported Friedman's arguments still true? Does this also mean corporations shouldn't try to shape government/public policy?
Additional questions: "increase profits" over what timescale? PE has a reputation for increasing profits in the short term while killing the company over the medium term.
Re social responsibility. Wasn't it Ford who helped realize that paying workers enough to let them buy your product increased your market size, thus increasing profits? Did Ford perhaps go too far in 'social policy' by requiring his employees to pass invasive inspections by his company's Sociological Department. Where to draw the line?
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#575>>I kept watching good companies drift away from the missions they were founded on. Not because anyone woke up one day and decided to be evil, but because the structure they were built on slowly pulled them there. I call that pull "financial gravity." Mate, tried as hard as you like, it's called "fundamental laws of capitalism". I understand that won't sell books, and denial does, but c'mon. >> We've all experienced…
And they say people on HN are all negative without having read the source material. What an exaggeration!
I hope you decide to read the book, and then come back and share whether it meets your expectations or defies them. The fact that you know about the "hack" of the two-entities solution indicates to me that you might well be surprised. There is a whole chapter on that "hack" and how (and why) to implement it.
I'd also ask you to re-examine whether the "objective incentives of the capitalistic market" are a law of nature (and thus, immutable) or something that is subject to human agency. If the latter, maybe we should exert ourselves towards changing it, rather than simply denigrating those who attempt to change it as naive or hopeless. In fact, I address this question directly in the later chapters of the book, including why (I think) people make comments like this to me.
So, in a way, you're in the book! I hope you'll check it out. But either way, thanks for stopping by and dropping a comment.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#576Earlier 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…
> The new generations have lived their whole lives under this maligned structure, and they are sick and tired of it.
Evidence in support:
Compare the number of HN posts showing disfavor towards "billionares" and/or other markers of business success, and how this has changed over time.
See the popularity of this post from the other day as one example, on 'dopamine fracking' https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48440792
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#577Earlier quoted context omitted.
You might want to ask yourself why, in all these years, you haven't heard of it. There's quite a few people invested in keeping it that way.
I think there is large gap between what you think LTSE is - and what it actually is. And yes, I know its your baby. Its similar to the kind of gap that exists within the minds of what people want ESG to be - and what it actually is.
do tell
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#578I'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?
Apple is not covered in the book (except via a few Steve Jobs anecdotes). I'm just not plugged in enough to their internal culture to be able to comment intelligently. Tell me what's different about this page vs what you've seen on LinkedIn? maybe I can learn how to promote the book better!
Honestly, I think on LinkedIn, I'm usually in doom-scrolling mode, whereas on HN, I'm more likely to read a post in-depth. I think it was smart to come here to reach out on multiple modalities!
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#579Earlier quoted context omitted.
For NASA I don't know but all others that are private companies the "mission" is never "the mission". The mission is "making more money" and everything else, including the change in culture, is the result of how single focused "good" (according to the market) companies are. I was pondering about a piece of wisdom people often say, roughly going like "Oh yes, invest in stocks, the market always goes up!" and even thou…
I don't know why this comment is downvoted. You raise some interesting points. First, for-profit vs non-profit. This is a great point. I have only worked for huge for-profits orgs my whole career. On the other hand, my mother worked as a first grade teacher (teaching children to read) for 35 years. The difference in our view of the workplace is night and day: She views it as much more benevolent because other teacher…
Sincerely appreciate you took the time to reply and clarify.
Honestly I don't care for downvotes but I admit it's frustrating that somebody believes I'm wrong (perfectly fine! I'm wrong very VERY often.) but doesn't try to make me understand how (not fine, it's depriving me from a potential opportunity to see flaws in my reasoning or understanding).
So yes, thanks!
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#580Just 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…
"Is Revenue Model More Important than Culture?" is a very interesting read, I read it twice, once yesterday, once again today while taking notes about it. The "dominant term rule" is concept that is similar to what you are describing Eric with the concept "financial gravity". Which is is similar to the [[large object theory of history]], explained on the podcast episode [[The War on Cars: Tony Kushner on The Pushcart War]]:
>[[large object theory of history]] is that all human misery is the product, not of some sort of general malevolence, equally distributed among the human population, but located among certain people who feel that they have to basically get into a gigantic truck and run over pushcart peddlers in order to be safe and secure in this world.