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Actually the world probably does need "another way to connect with merchants." The way you can convince yourself of that is to ask: have all the ways of connec
by pg 14y ago
Actually the world probably does need "another way to connect with merchants." The way you can convince yourself of that is to ask: have all the ways of connecting with merchants been invented? "Connecting with merchants" is such a large category that the answer is surely no. In fact it takes some effort to find sentences of the form "All the ways of doing x have been invented" that one can feel certain are true.
It's certainly not true for photo-sharing applications, because that's not even a real category. Images are a fundamental medium, like text. We don't lump Twitter, email, and blogging together as "text-sharing applications." The only reason we do with photos is that it's only recently that smartphones have brought a lot of photos online. But a huge number of what we would now call "photo-sharing applications" remain to be invented. Ditto for text-sharing applications incidentally.
- sophacles 14y agoI think there is a good question in here somewhere: Is it better for startups to monte carlo (and/or) genetic algorithm style variations on a theme to find the best way, or is it better try find something truly different to create and push the state of the art into a new area? And of course, that brings up the meta-question: did I just propose a false dilemma, are the two things really different?
- eckyptang 14y agoI think you miss the point. I think the point is more that "finding another way to connect with merchants" really isn't that important or useful in the scale of things. The problem has been artificially created so that it can be solved for profit. Solving problems that humanity really faces with tangible innovations rather than inventing slightly different ways to top slice cash using virtual real estate is much more important. A million shitty rails apps yet nothing which truly changes the human experience. My father once said (whilst slaving over PDS7.1 writing yet another payroll system in the late 80s): "I feel guilty sitting here taking money from people for this. It genuinely doesn't improve their lives."
- mccr8 14y agoGetting paid improves my life...
- eckyptang 14y agoDoing something useful to the world and getting paid, improves yours and others' lives...
- muratmutlu 14y agoBeing happy improves my life, if my meaningless project does that then so what? And just because you stop the next person from making a group chat app doesn't mean they are going to put a rover on Titan
- tensor 14y agoThis sort of selfishness is really not something you should expect people to applaud. We all do things to improve our lives, but thinking only of ourselves is nothing at all to be proud of.
- gfodor 14y agoHe never claimed he was proud of his selfishness or expected people to applaud. What he's claiming is that others shouldn't look down upon it. There's a difference.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- batista 14y ago>Being happy improves my life, if my meaningless project does that then so what? So you are a solipsistic narcissist. It's not about making you happy, it's about making the world a better place.
- dageshi 14y ago