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I live in a post-soviet country and the ~50 years of soviet planned-economy, arbitrary laws and constant shortages combined with an illegitimate regime (as any

I live in a post-soviet country and the ~50 years of soviet planned-economy, arbitrary laws and constant shortages combined with an illegitimate regime (as any foreign power that is ruling by force on your turf is by definition) meant that people got a pretty deep ingrained attitude of "gaming the system" even tho there's almost 30 years of self rule. It is slowly fading away and being replaced by the capitalist "growth hacking" which I'm not sure is a lot different.

Farbklex 6y ago
Can agree. Gaming the system was the norm in Russia. E.g. you couldn't buy or sell apartments. If you wanted one, you had to "move in" with someone and the other person would then "move out" later. Payment was handled under the radar. Hearing the stories from my parents, just getting furniture for a new apartment was already hard, since sometimes it just was not available. This mentality now still lives on in a lot of us.
unishark 6y ago
> It is slowly fading away and being replaced by the capitalist "growth hacking" which I'm not sure is a lot different. There's definitely a blurry line there. I'm not completely clear what "growth hacking" means, but I definitely think SEO crosses a line (basically hacking google's algorithm to mislead them and their customers). Even worse would be things like paying for fake traffic to drive up ad revenue. People generally understand there is a line between legitimate business and scamming people, even when greed/desperation drives them to bend the rules somewhat and rationalize it.
- teddyh 6y ago
  To quote myself: “I’ve yet to see something called a “growth hack” that wasn’t unethical.” — https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16829121#16829957 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16829121#16829957
bovermyer 6y ago
Estonia?
- jnsaff2 6y ago
  Yes in fact, but I can imagine it’s mostly same elsewhere too.
  - bovermyer 6y ago
    I only ask because I'm looking at moving to Estonia in a couple years!

Farbklex 6y ago

Can agree. Gaming the system was the norm in Russia. E.g. you couldn't buy or sell apartments. If you wanted one, you had to "move in" with someone and the other person would then "move out" later. Payment was handled under the radar. Hearing the stories from my parents, just getting furniture for a new apartment was already hard, since sometimes it just was not available. This mentality now still lives on in a lot of us.

unishark 6y ago

> It is slowly fading away and being replaced by the capitalist "growth hacking" which I'm not sure is a lot different. There's definitely a blurry line there. I'm not completely clear what "growth hacking" means, but I definitely think SEO crosses a line (basically hacking google's algorithm to mislead them and their customers). Even worse would be things like paying for fake traffic to drive up ad revenue. People generally understand there is a line between legitimate business and scamming people, even when greed/desperation drives them to bend the rules somewhat and rationalize it.

teddyh 6y ago
To quote myself: “I’ve yet to see something called a “growth hack” that wasn’t unethical.” — https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16829121#16829957 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16829121#16829957

bovermyer 6y ago

Estonia?

jnsaff2 6y ago
Yes in fact, but I can imagine it’s mostly same elsewhere too.
- bovermyer 6y ago
  I only ask because I'm looking at moving to Estonia in a couple years!