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Can't say that this is surprising, given the startup types I have worked with in the past. [EDIT] I want to elaborate on this, actually. Rewards are good incen

Can't say that this is surprising, given the startup types I have worked with in the past. [EDIT] I want to elaborate on this, actually. Rewards are good incentives until they become so large that they eclipse the value of the thing one is working on. At that point, you no longer attract people who want to accomplish things for their own sake or who even think they know how. With a large enough reward, what you attract are assholes who want rewards. I hope we figure this problem out before people like this drive our whole civilization/planet off a cliff because they want to be rich. You'd think it would be obvious, and I think it is to many of us. But there are enough of these reward seekers and the rewards are big enough that they dominate the scene.

vincent-toups 7y ago
Further elaboration: a financial award is a great way to tempt an innovator out of their risk adverseness: it says, you can quit your job or whatever and not risk much if your innovation is valuable. The ideal startup person is someone who already has the idea and knows its good but doesn't want to take the risk without some kind of reward to justify it. But if the rewards get big enough, you get reward seekers without any fundamental idea who are just going to sit around trying to come up with them until they find one someone is going to bite on. These two populations of people are totally different and only one of them actually cares about the product or making the world a better place.
- tryitnow 7y ago
  I am actually pretty skeptical of financial rewards, I think after a certain point they are far better at attracting the wrong type of person. Of course, that leaves us with the question of how to attract productive innovators. I don't know. I'd probably lean toward some combination of restrained capitalism + massive subsidies to talented technical people + prizes for innovation.

vincent-toups 7y ago

Further elaboration: a financial award is a great way to tempt an innovator out of their risk adverseness: it says, you can quit your job or whatever and not risk much if your innovation is valuable. The ideal startup person is someone who already has the idea and knows its good but doesn't want to take the risk without some kind of reward to justify it. But if the rewards get big enough, you get reward seekers without any fundamental idea who are just going to sit around trying to come up with them until they find one someone is going to bite on. These two populations of people are totally different and only one of them actually cares about the product or making the world a better place.

tryitnow 7y ago
I am actually pretty skeptical of financial rewards, I think after a certain point they are far better at attracting the wrong type of person. Of course, that leaves us with the question of how to attract productive innovators. I don't know. I'd probably lean toward some combination of restrained capitalism + massive subsidies to talented technical people + prizes for innovation.