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Plus making money is the whole point of creating a company. There are many weirdos (I mean that as a positive thing) building things like popcorn time and its
by the-grump 4y ago
Plus making money is the whole point of creating a company.
There are many weirdos (I mean that as a positive thing) building things like popcorn time and its successors, creating models for vrChat, modding games, building rockets, automating their homes with ESP Home/Tasmota, using esoteric languages to solve solved problems, playing with ML models, etc.
They don't need to come to YC.
Like it or not, status follows money, and YC has proven itself to be an effective step to a successful exit. Seekers of money and status (what the discussion refers to as conformists) will find you if you're at YC. Weirdos are weirded out by you.
- throwaway13337 4y agoI agree. The tech nerds were a great investment recently and so people are trying to spot the real ones in a sea of fakes now. The investors think that spotting the real ones will lead to more of the same. Maybe that was a moment in time. Another way to to look at it is through value capture. The things you listed often create a lot of value for the community they're a part of or for humanity as a whole. But these things do not generate as much value to the creators. The creators are unable to capture the value they created but do it anyway. The last decade can be seen through the lens of tech companies (mostly big ones) capturing the overall value of the tech created at the expense of the communities it once subsidized. Value capture isn't bad in itself but the immense focus on it kills a lot of the utility of the thing created. More loose forms of value capture created the tech revolution that were then monetized often by a separate group. The cynically monetized tech will hopefully be outcompeted by the looser forms due to increased utility inherent in its looseness as happened previously.
- EarlKing 4y ago> The tech nerds were a great investment recently and so people are trying to spot the real ones in a sea of fakes now. The investors think that spotting the real ones will lead to more of the same. The good news is that there are real tech nerds out there. The bad news is that any attempt at a general solution to spotting them is probably equivalent to finding a general solution to the halting problem. The worse news is that most investors have no idea what the hell I mean when I say that and so are doomed to piss their money away. Oh well.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- bbor 4y agoIdk “X is like this other really hard/maybe impossible thing” is within the grasp of even the jockiest of Wharton grads ;)
- lambdasquirrel 4y agoI think there’s a subtlety to the halting problem here that’s the catch though. :P
- layer8 4y ago> Plus making money is the whole point of creating a company. There is a whole spectrum between (a) having profit maximization as the main or only goal, and (b) first and foremost wanting to create a specific product or service while being able to make a living from that. It would be strange (or sad?) to categorize the latter as non-conformist.
- lazide 4y agoWell, the latter is more the description of ‘a job’, no? Accumulation of capital, and hence more effectiveness as a capitalist, tends to be more effective if you look to make the maximum amount of capital, no? Which is more than just ‘a job’.
- layer8 4y agoAs an employee, you usually don't choose what you work on, your employer does. With your own company, you decide. The question is what is your motivation? Some only want to make the most money and/or gain the most status, others want to spend their time creatively, and/or they have a specific vision ("be the change you want to see in the world"), and having it be profitable only serves the secondary function of paying their bills. I'd argue that the world would be better off having more of the latter than of the former.
- hinkley 4y ago> Plus making money is the whole point of creating a company. It really isn’t. There’s lots of other reasons to make a company, and making money is the means, not the ends. Money isn’t even the point of money. You have a whole life of misery ahead of you if you don’t figure that out and figure it out soon.
- msla 4y ago> It really isn’t. There’s lots of other reasons to make a company, and making money is the means, not the ends. If you didn't want money at some level, you wouldn't make a company, you'd make a social club or other hobbyist group. > Money isn’t even the point of money. Eh, for some people it is, and for some people bragging rights are the point, which means they want more money so they can brag about having more money than anyone else. Which leads to precisely the same observed behavior, so it doesn't really matter to anyone else.
- enos_feedler 4y agoa social club and hobbyist group can't make big world changes without the cycle of capital pumping through it's veins. For that, you need a company. Or a really good non-profit message.
- lazide 4y agoIf the cycle of capital is required…. Isn’t making money literally the necessary sustaining part?
- enos_feedler 4y agoMake it yes. Put it in your pocket no
- lazide 4y agoSeems like a whole lot of yak shaving then. Seems pretty dumb? Or self delusional?
- bayindirh 4y ago> Plus making money is the whole point of creating a company. Just no. As somebody else said, the point of the money is not the money itself, even. Life is too short for just earning money.
- yusufnb 4y agoI think the whole point of creating a company should be to provide value in a sustainable manner. And you need to make money for that. So the end goal should be to maximize value and not money. When money becomes the main goal, companies eventually turn on evil side.