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They are net positive by not starting a competing startup, and slowly rotting away into obsolescence in a snake pit. Have you noticed that an increasing share

They are net positive by not starting a competing startup, and slowly rotting away into obsolescence in a snake pit. Have you noticed that an increasing share of innovation now comes from Asia, while U.S. startups are increasingly about grift or skirting regulation?

sam0x17 3y ago
"Competition" and "Innovation" rarely benefit consumers. You can't solve capitalism being shitty with more capitalism. Many startups are great (for consumers) during their bootstrap phase. Once they become large the enshitification process begins as we maximize our shitty profit-seeking objective function.
sam0x17 3y ago
Tell me how one more profit-maximizing startup is going to improve my quality of life without taking my money
- euroderf 3y ago
  Money is crystallized time. If a startup frees up your time, it's like giving you money. If the startup is subsidized by the government (or gullible VCs), it doesn't even need to take any of your actual money. So what can the government do that will give us all more free time ? Maybe quit encouraging a dinosaur-ridden 20th-century economy ? Time to shelve those buggy whips.
  - sam0x17 3y ago
    Name the last time a profitable startup product genuinely saved you time when you subtract out the time-value of what you also paid, the hassle of setting it up, the email drip campaigns that waste micro-moments of your day... I don't think there has ever been one in the consumer market, ever, that is actually a net positive. Across the board they take more than they give. And for any example, I could posit that an open source solution (whether it exists or not) would be a better product and more of a net positive. B2B sure, there are plenty of examples, but that's just capitalists making capitalism tools for other capitalists. These aren't tools that benefit society so it's a poor example. We use these products because we have no other choice, not because they are optimal for our situation. Even our need for them is often carefully and artificially crafted by corporations, whose ultimate goal is for us to have no choice but to give them money. They would prefer we derive little to no value from their products, because if they can force us to pay anyway, that is much cheaper to manage.
  - sam0x17 3y ago
    > Money is crystallized time If this were true, then Jeff Bezos would have to be millions of years old. Unless of course you think he exploits the time of others...
    - euroderf 3y ago
      I meant in the sense that money can buy free time, and people will pay for it.

sam0x17 3y ago

"Competition" and "Innovation" rarely benefit consumers. You can't solve capitalism being shitty with more capitalism. Many startups are great (for consumers) during their bootstrap phase. Once they become large the enshitification process begins as we maximize our shitty profit-seeking objective function.

sam0x17 3y ago

Tell me how one more profit-maximizing startup is going to improve my quality of life without taking my money

euroderf 3y ago
Money is crystallized time. If a startup frees up your time, it's like giving you money. If the startup is subsidized by the government (or gullible VCs), it doesn't even need to take any of your actual money. So what can the government do that will give us all more free time ? Maybe quit encouraging a dinosaur-ridden 20th-century economy ? Time to shelve those buggy whips.
- sam0x17 3y ago
  Name the last time a profitable startup product genuinely saved you time when you subtract out the time-value of what you also paid, the hassle of setting it up, the email drip campaigns that waste micro-moments of your day... I don't think there has ever been one in the consumer market, ever, that is actually a net positive. Across the board they take more than they give. And for any example, I could posit that an open source solution (whether it exists or not) would be a better product and more of a net positive. B2B sure, there are plenty of examples, but that's just capitalists making capitalism tools for other capitalists. These aren't tools that benefit society so it's a poor example. We use these products because we have no other choice, not because they are optimal for our situation. Even our need for them is often carefully and artificially crafted by corporations, whose ultimate goal is for us to have no choice but to give them money. They would prefer we derive little to no value from their products, because if they can force us to pay anyway, that is much cheaper to manage.
- sam0x17 3y ago
  > Money is crystallized time If this were true, then Jeff Bezos would have to be millions of years old. Unless of course you think he exploits the time of others...
  - euroderf 3y ago
    I meant in the sense that money can buy free time, and people will pay for it.