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Do you know how meaningless the ability to make money is? Anybody with a hint of talent and a hint of focus can make lots and lots of money very easily. If your
by ruabin 17y ago
Do you know how meaningless the ability to make money is? Anybody with a hint of talent and a hint of focus can make lots and lots of money very easily. If your only goal is to make lots of money and make even more money then, what do you do afterwards? Die and give away your money so that somebody else can play the game?
But yours is the voice I most disagree with, Ryan. Your MightyBrand stands out in my mind as the worst sort of startup — you appeal not to a person with a single, concrete objective, but to somebody with a vacuous sense of what he's looking for online. I'm sure you have the best intentions, and I don't doubt your ability to make things, but I could never spend a part of my life developing tools just to let other people look at numbers online. It seems like such a pathetic goddamn endgame to me.
Useful? Useful's good. But useful isn't the end of the job, like Google routinely assumes it is. Once you've made something that people can use, your goal needs to be refinement. And Google's refinements are geared toward an unpleasant goal. As they've evolved they've become steadily uglier. My favorite things of theirs are the ones that add the least function, like the new fade-in on their homepage that adds simplicity without removing anything.
But I guess you don't know why breathtaking experiences are good. I guess you've spent your life in a gray box staring at the numbers and comments of people who as far as you're concerned aren't really people. You've never watched movies or read books or done anything that was enjoyable beyond simple utility. So you wouldn't understand why I think web developers need to learn how to create enjoyable, pleasant reactions from their designs. It would certainly explain MightyBrand's design.
"Useful is better than innovative."
No it's not. It's different. Some people like the one, other people like the other. I regret that so few people go for the latter, but I suppose, like you, they've this binary worldview wherein doing one thing your entire life maximizes some variables I'm not aware of.
- ryanwaggoner 17y agoMightyBrand's design sucks, agreed. I'm not a designer, nor is my cofounder, and we haven't finished our redesign. Doing a startup is hard work, as I'm sure you know. We're just taking it one day at a time and doing the best we can with what we have. Obviously some people will find that as contemptible as you obviously do, but that's ok. Enough people love us to keep the lights on, and most days that's enough :) Since you've seen fit to make this personal, care to drop the shroud of anonymity and tell us about all the deep, intensely meaningful things you've created or given the world? Otherwise, it would seem that you're just another cowardly troll who creates a throwaway account to sling shit. And how meaningful is that?
- ruabin 17y agoIt's nothing personal. Or nothing offensively personal, anyway. I don't think you're a bad or evil or stupid person. I just disagree with your outlook on this, which happens to factor in with how you work right now. I mean, I'm in the minority here. I don't get along with the startup culture at all; I don't even feel comfortable with the concept of making a living offering a service per se to somebody. I think that my opinions have a certain merit, but they're opinions based on a shitload of varying philosophies and ideas and talents which don't translate well for everybody. But I like to offer them because I know there're certain people here who might benefit either from the ideas or from the resulting debate. As for the anonymity: I don't feel comfortable being a known contributor to this place, for a variety of reasons. I read the stories here and I join in the discussions where I think my words might mean something, but I'm critical of the community and I don't want to be the person who spends his time fighting to change it. So, if it's all the same to you, I'll keep my name unspoken, and hope that I'm contributing enough that my writing here is seen as a valuable offering and not, as you'd claim, a cowardly troll. (When things by me are posted here, plenty of anonymous users see fit to address me by name. So if that's what you're worried about, I'm sure you'll get your chance.)