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[..] What YC looks for, above all, is founders who understand some group of users and can make what they want. This is so important that it's YC's motto: "Make
by jelliclesfarm 6y ago
[..] What YC looks for, above all, is founders who understand some group of users and can make what they want. This is so important that it's YC's motto: "Make something people want."[..]
And what people want is ways and means to satisfy one of the ‘seven sins’ : “Pride. Greed. Lust. Envy. Gluttony. Wrath. Sloth.”
Facebook satisfies all the seven urges to sin.
- greenyouse 6y agoAlan Kay had an interesting talk about designing for the future. One part was on building a company to appeal to basic instincts vs creating tools and systems to benefit people. https://youtu.be/1e8VZlPBx_0?t=2814 https://youtu.be/1e8VZlPBx_0?t=2814 There are universal human traits that have negative impacts on people over the long-term but are craved during the short-term. These are like legal drugs. If you can use a few of these traits and tie them to an addictive feedback loop, then you probably have a product that's successful (and totally evil). It's concerning that some of the bestselling books in the startup bubble are about how to create these addictions in people. It would be nice if there were more tools and systems companies for helping humanity grow. I guess most modern day big companies are like a mix of the two. For every major social network there are usually some awesome engineering tools that get open sourced. It's harder to create a tools only or systems only kind of company but they're definitely nice since they expand the way we all think.