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This is amazing. However, what we need even more is a pledge for e.g. responsible disruption. So companies could devote say 1% of their resources to modeling t

by avivo 10y ago

This is amazing. However, what we need even more is a pledge for e.g. responsible disruption. So companies could devote say 1% of their resources to modeling their effect on the world and compensating for (or designing away) the negative externalities they unintentionally impose. I know that is a much harder problem though, and I hope lessons from Founders Pledge can be applied toward it. Kudos to the team for putting this together though — it's a great initiative.

tlb 10y ago
This is an interesting idea. Are there good examples you could point to of analyses of externalities of a company? Other than an oil, or chemical company. For a pure software company, is the answer ever much different than the amount of electricity they use?
- avivo 10y ago
  Definitely. Here's a small sample. Craigslist unintentionally decimated newspaper revenue from classifieds. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/08/14/sorry-craig-study-finds-craigslist-cost-newspapers-5-billion http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/08/14/sorry-c... Twitter unintentionally created opportunities for crazy levels of harassment that bleeds dangerously into the offline world. https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/a-honeypot-for-assholes-inside-twitters-10-year-failure-to-s https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/a-honeypot-for-asshol... Facebook unintentionally created an industry of hyperpartisan factless discourse that may be fueling demagoguery worldwide. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/magazine/inside-facebooks-totally-insane-unintentionally-gigantic-hyperpartisan-political-media-machine.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/magazine/inside-facebooks-... That's just off the top of my head, without getting into companies like Uber & AirBnB, or ad targeters, etc. All of these companies provide incredible value, and I mostly prefer to live in a world with them than without them. But it would be great to see more effort put toward mitigation of their unintentional excesses (and to their credit, all three are trying at least a little in various ways).

by avivo 10y ago

tlb 10y ago

This is an interesting idea. Are there good examples you could point to of analyses of externalities of a company? Other than an oil, or chemical company. For a pure software company, is the answer ever much different than the amount of electricity they use?

avivo 10y ago
Definitely. Here's a small sample. Craigslist unintentionally decimated newspaper revenue from classifieds. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/08/14/sorry-craig-study-finds-craigslist-cost-newspapers-5-billion http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/08/14/sorry-c... Twitter unintentionally created opportunities for crazy levels of harassment that bleeds dangerously into the offline world. https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/a-honeypot-for-assholes-inside-twitters-10-year-failure-to-s https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/a-honeypot-for-asshol... Facebook unintentionally created an industry of hyperpartisan factless discourse that may be fueling demagoguery worldwide. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/magazine/inside-facebooks-totally-insane-unintentionally-gigantic-hyperpartisan-political-media-machine.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/magazine/inside-facebooks-... That's just off the top of my head, without getting into companies like Uber & AirBnB, or ad targeters, etc. All of these companies provide incredible value, and I mostly prefer to live in a world with them than without them. But it would be great to see more effort put toward mitigation of their unintentional excesses (and to their credit, all three are trying at least a little in various ways).