3 ms·

You know, it’s stuff like this making me think maybe the anti capitalists have a point. A company makes a popular product customers like, but to satisfy the VC

You know, it’s stuff like this making me think maybe the anti capitalists have a point. A company makes a popular product customers like, but to satisfy the VCs the company must make a product the customers don’t like but could make the VCs more money. Not sure this is the “invisible hand” Adam Smith had in mind.

charcircuit 7mo ago
In order to make more money you have to make a product customers want.
- jimbokun 7mo ago
  According to the comment I replied to you have to make the product VCs think will make VCs the most money, even if that’s at odds with what your customers are telling you they want.
  - charcircuit 7mo ago
    It is more of a point that it may require leaving your old customers behind and disappointing them in order for you to find the customers you can provide the most value to.
- popcorncowboy 7mo ago
  No, just a product they'll pay for
  - joshuacc 7mo ago
    Customers aren’t in the habit of paying for things they don’t want.
    - qsera 7mo ago
      You sure about that?
    - tquinn 7mo ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand
runarberg 7mo ago
Anti-capitalist here: Our point is actually the same point as the one Anti-feudalists had. The consumer hostility observed under capitalism is simply a corollary.
- junofan 7mo ago
  To be fair feudalism (the row-farming kind) kind of collapsed because people found better deals with the rise of trade and mercantilism and such. It wasn’t anything anybody needed to make points over. IDEs seem headed in the same direction. Seriously, watching Codex rip apart binaries in parallel and Claude go from nothing to app in one prompt, I’m pretty sure there’s no need for me to look at any code. I’m fine using tools that just emit machine code if that’s more efficient.
  - runarberg 7mo ago
    It is easier to imagine the end of the world then the end of feudalism. I kind of like the story of how Malthus had his theory of societal collapse because he couldn’t imagine a better system then mercantilism. That societies would rather collapse then to end their colonial monopolies. I see a similar theory today with around depopulation, that as society gets older and relatively fewer working age people there are, that society would rather collapse then we find a better system then Capitalism.
    - jimbokun 7mo ago
      What system works better when you have a very large number of elderly people who want to retire and very few young people to work?
      - runarberg 7mo ago
        Socialism, for one.
        jimbokun 7mo ago
lII1lIlI11ll 7mo ago
"Invisible hand" doesn't force you to take VC funding. You can maintain (and many do) what VCs like to derisively call "lifestyle business". And GNU project somehow wasn't started in Soviet Union either. Editors of both kinds (non-VC funded business and FOSS) are widely available for you to use BTW. The problems that Cursor is facing are directly resulted by the choices that its founders freely made previously.

charcircuit 7mo ago

In order to make more money you have to make a product customers want.

jimbokun 7mo ago
According to the comment I replied to you have to make the product VCs think will make VCs the most money, even if that’s at odds with what your customers are telling you they want.
- charcircuit 7mo ago
  It is more of a point that it may require leaving your old customers behind and disappointing them in order for you to find the customers you can provide the most value to.
popcorncowboy 7mo ago
No, just a product they'll pay for
- joshuacc 7mo ago
  Customers aren’t in the habit of paying for things they don’t want.
  - qsera 7mo ago
    You sure about that?
  - tquinn 7mo ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand

runarberg 7mo ago

Anti-capitalist here: Our point is actually the same point as the one Anti-feudalists had. The consumer hostility observed under capitalism is simply a corollary.

junofan 7mo ago
To be fair feudalism (the row-farming kind) kind of collapsed because people found better deals with the rise of trade and mercantilism and such. It wasn’t anything anybody needed to make points over. IDEs seem headed in the same direction. Seriously, watching Codex rip apart binaries in parallel and Claude go from nothing to app in one prompt, I’m pretty sure there’s no need for me to look at any code. I’m fine using tools that just emit machine code if that’s more efficient.
- runarberg 7mo ago
  It is easier to imagine the end of the world then the end of feudalism. I kind of like the story of how Malthus had his theory of societal collapse because he couldn’t imagine a better system then mercantilism. That societies would rather collapse then to end their colonial monopolies. I see a similar theory today with around depopulation, that as society gets older and relatively fewer working age people there are, that society would rather collapse then we find a better system then Capitalism.
  - jimbokun 7mo ago
    What system works better when you have a very large number of elderly people who want to retire and very few young people to work?
    - runarberg 7mo ago
      Socialism, for one.
      - jimbokun 7mo ago

lII1lIlI11ll 7mo ago

"Invisible hand" doesn't force you to take VC funding. You can maintain (and many do) what VCs like to derisively call "lifestyle business". And GNU project somehow wasn't started in Soviet Union either. Editors of both kinds (non-VC funded business and FOSS) are widely available for you to use BTW. The problems that Cursor is facing are directly resulted by the choices that its founders freely made previously.