"I guess what is confusing is how subjective "the right thing" can be." Oussama Ammar of TheFamily, a successful accelerator in Paris, agrees with you and clai

"I guess what is confusing is how subjective "the right thing" can be." Oussama Ammar of TheFamily, a successful accelerator in Paris, agrees with you and claims that an effective motto must be one that can be disagreed with. It must in some way take a stand. "Don't be evil" wouldn't work at Goldman Sachs, for example, where people might argue that little evils must be done in the service of the greater good, or that "the market" is the one who decides what is right or wrong. "Don't be evil" seems to imply that the ends should not be used to justify the means. "Do the right thing" could probably be more acceptable at Goldman, because as you note it's more subjective and allows for small evils that work in the service of greater goods -- it seems to allow for the ends to justify the means.