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TLDR: (Using Phil Libin's own logic against him) Startups are likely to fail, so it's just as absurd to say you're doing it to change the world as it is to beli
by iamdev 14y ago
TLDR: (Using Phil Libin's own logic against him) Startups are likely to fail, so it's just as absurd to say you're doing it to change the world as it is to believe you're doing it for the money. You're still better off joining an organization that has momentum and resources.
This invites inevitable argument though, since:
1. It's endlessly debatable which companies are actually changing the world.
2. The ones most people think of first are based on charity, which is again arguable and limited to very short term gain.
- dlf 14y ago1. Yes. 2. I don't think of the ones based on charity. The ones that come to mind are Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, and AOL (in its day). My point was just that there are other ways to change the world. I used a poor and overdone example by work seemingly related to charity (how come no one is picking on the marine biology example), but you could very well have a world changing impact and be an author or a professor or a painter. Heck, you could be a mechanic or a stay-at-home mom. There's no reason changing the world has to be tied to profession at all.
- iamdev 14y agoI should have been more clear that I personally thought your article was spot on. I was only trying to summarize the debate brewing on HN. Great blog post and really thought provoking.
- dlf 14y agoThanks! As were your comments! I admittedly glossed over these issues in the post, but I didn't want to dwell on them because I thought it might detract from the overall message. I kind of did that anyways though. I like HN because the quality of responses is so much higher than elsewhere, and because you have a forum for fleshing out the glaring issues left in the article. I might delve into the topics you mentioned a bit in future posts. One thing that I think drives people crazy is the whole "change the world" rhetoric in general. It might be useful to explore what that actually means.