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10% failure rate is bad on a website about startups? Now, we're talking life instead of life savings, but I find it hard to say that their decision is wrong in
by boredguy8 16y ago
10% failure rate is bad on a website about startups?
Now, we're talking life instead of life savings, but I find it hard to say that their decision is wrong in any ethical or moral sense, and I'm curious what moral framework would justify your viewpoint. Additionally, burning through your life savings (and that of friends/family) can easily cause more long-term harm than having a mom or dad that died while climbing Everest. You just think that one risk is acceptable because it doesn't terminate in death. But there are greater things to fear than dying.
Additionally, suppose there were some not-to-distant dystopia in which reading non-approved books were a capital offense, and the state/corporate/whatever apparatus caught 10% of all offenders and had a 100% conviction rate for that 10%. Would that suddenly make reading wrong? I think most people have the intuition that the law is wrong, not the reading.
Similarly, I have a hard time seeing why 10% of people dying while doing something somehow makes it wrong per se.
- benmathes 16y agoFailure rate alone isn't enough to compare climbing Everest and running a startup. The cost of failure on Everest is ultimate, but the cost of failure in a startup is temporary and economic.
- mindcrime 16y agoThe cost of failure on Everest is ultimate, but the cost of failure in a startup is temporary and economic. What about the folks who lose their life savings when their businesses fail, and decide to commit suicide? I have no stats on how often that actually happens, but it's something to consider.
- boredguy8 16y agoIt's only 'ultimate' if dying is the 'ultimate' bad thing that can happen. Most people at most times and most places don't think that's true, and I agree with them. Not living is the ultimate bad thing that can happen, and respiration and living aren't the same thing, in this context.
- shin_lao 16y agoFailing a startup is part of the process of becoming a better entrepreneur. Failing a startup actually brings something to the community. Dying in a mountain may be part of the process of living your life and it's not less stupid than dying in a car accident, however climbing a mountain and have 10% chance of dying in the process is just plain reckless and selfish. Your life is your own, but don't expect to get approval and admiration from everybody else.