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>To a first approximation, "extract profit from this" means providing goods/services that people are willing to pay money for. This is too generous, particular

>To a first approximation, "extract profit from this" means providing goods/services that people are willing to pay money for. This is too generous, particularly with regards to a16z coming into an already existing market. In reality, it's more akin to taking something that already exists in a form that people enjoy and are already willing to pay for, and both bastardizing and cannibalizing it into something of lesser quality just so that you can have additional excuses to charge more money for things that you never used to charge money for before. "Nice thing you have there, be a shame if we fucked it up so that we could make more money off of it," is a mental illness.

AlexandrB 2y ago
To put it another way, it's taking surplus value that was previously going to either the producers or consumers of the product and funneling it to Silicon Valley VCs instead.
lioeters 2y ago
This is a main driver of the enshittification of society, people who are net negative being in the middle of all interpersonal transactions, seeking every opportunity to exploit and extract value. The self-styled "elite" ruling class is mostly made up of sociopaths who are excellent at being parasites.
anomaly_ 2y ago
It takes two parties for a transaction to work. Basically, you're railing against free markets and the free exchange of ideas/money/work/etc.
- jjulius 2y ago
  This is a black and white perspective, while the world happens to be quite nuanced.
- phs318u 2y ago
  You’re assuming that the other party in this transaction is rational. If there’s one thing that should be obvious to all by now it’s that humans as consumers can be incredibly irrational to the point where entire industries have flourished by gaming this irrationality for the aforementioned purpose of squeezing even greater profits.
- DanHulton 2y ago
  That's not the slam dunk you think it is. Not everyone believes a completely unrestricted market is a good thing. Regulations, for example, exist for good reasons, and when deregulation happens to an industry, boy, do you ever have to get ready to remember the good old days fondly. There is an inherent power imbalance in a lot of transactions, and an utterly free market allows that imbalance to be exploited _ruthlessly._

AlexandrB 2y ago

To put it another way, it's taking surplus value that was previously going to either the producers or consumers of the product and funneling it to Silicon Valley VCs instead.

lioeters 2y ago

This is a main driver of the enshittification of society, people who are net negative being in the middle of all interpersonal transactions, seeking every opportunity to exploit and extract value. The self-styled "elite" ruling class is mostly made up of sociopaths who are excellent at being parasites.

anomaly_ 2y ago

It takes two parties for a transaction to work. Basically, you're railing against free markets and the free exchange of ideas/money/work/etc.

jjulius 2y ago
This is a black and white perspective, while the world happens to be quite nuanced.
phs318u 2y ago
You’re assuming that the other party in this transaction is rational. If there’s one thing that should be obvious to all by now it’s that humans as consumers can be incredibly irrational to the point where entire industries have flourished by gaming this irrationality for the aforementioned purpose of squeezing even greater profits.
DanHulton 2y ago
That's not the slam dunk you think it is. Not everyone believes a completely unrestricted market is a good thing. Regulations, for example, exist for good reasons, and when deregulation happens to an industry, boy, do you ever have to get ready to remember the good old days fondly. There is an inherent power imbalance in a lot of transactions, and an utterly free market allows that imbalance to be exploited _ruthlessly._