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Why would anyone answer this question? The rule of thumb for the electronic age is "Never write down anything you don't want to see on the front page of the NYT
by jpm_sd 8y ago
Why would anyone answer this question? The rule of thumb for the electronic age is "Never write down anything you don't want to see on the front page of the NYTimes"
- wccrawford 8y agoI can't imagine. Internet bragging rights? Ugh. Forget it. For instance, I was once asked by an employer to do something unethical, and refused. I ended up talking them into something ethical instead. But I'm still not going to say what it was, even though we never did it. That'd just be dumb.
- s73v3r_ 8y agoSadly, I think there are plenty of people who see doing unethical things as a point of pride.
- Edd314159 8y agoI don't see why not. Humans aren't perfectly moral, we've all done things we're ashamed of (or at least not proud of, hopefully) in order to get a leg up on the competition. Some honesty could lead to some interesting discussion, or at least some good warning stories. Plus, HN is somewhat anonymous (if you're careful). It's not like you're incriminating yourself.
- gnicholas 8y agoI was hoping that people might share a couple types of responses: 1: unethical things they've done that they're not proud of (and whether or not it worked) 2: unethical things they considered doing but didn't (and whether they later regretted it — perhaps as a result of hearing about other successful folks doing things that are at least as unethical) 3: unethical things that they considered doing but didn't, in favor of a more ethical strategy to accomplish the same goal. The reason I'm interested in this is that I'm super risk-averse about stuff like this, and hearing stories about what other people have done has made me wonder whether I've been too conservative, to the detriment of my startup's growth.
- KirinDave 8y agoBecause perhaps destroying the infallible startup memes is of more value than a little bit of egg on one's face?
- pavel_lishin 8y agoSome people's admissions of unethical behavior could result in a little more than "egg on one's face".
- dolessdrugs 8y agohave you heard of this thing called the internet where you can be anonymous
- pavel_lishin 8y agoYes, and I've heard that it can be surprisingly difficult to anonymize yourself properly.
- staticautomatic 8y agoYeah. It's now relegated to the history books.