4 ms·

I can't believe this guy has no sense of humor[1]! He's completely serious about providing a service and making tons of money from it. In one question the inte

I can't believe this guy has no sense of humor[1]! He's completely serious about providing a service and making tons of money from it. In one question the interviewer asks: 'could you make a novel for instance?' to which he replies 'well, novels don't usually make money'. Wouldn't you think the correct answer would be 'well, it wouldn't be very good'? Hauntology at its best[2]. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8WuGKyBR90 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8WuGKyBR90 [2] http://booktwo.org/notebook/hauntological-futures/ http://booktwo.org/notebook/hauntological-futures/

potatolicious 14y ago
> "to which he replies 'well, novels don't usually make money'. Wouldn't you think the correct answer would be 'well, it wouldn't be very good'?" Perhaps the same question can be posed to many startup founders in our community. Very often people in the startup scene seem much more interested in extracting profit (or really, just making the exit) rather than creating something good (in whatever way that you might personally define goodness).
- baconner 14y ago
  Agreed. It's a shame to think about all the interesting things that might be getting built instead. Programming a novel generator is a great example. What a fantastic challenge being overlooked. It reminds me of this great video of Vonnegut graphing the emotional shape of stories. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ&feature=youtu...
- michaelt 14y ago
  Plenty of developers write software never hoping to make a dime from it or hire anyone else to work on it. But they have little reason to worry about incorporation or branding or 'pivoting' or 'series a funding' or 'growth hacking', and they self-identify as 'open source developers' rather than 'start up entrepreneurs'.
dasil003 14y ago
It's not that he has no sense of humor, it's that the fact that the books aren't good is a foregone conclusion. The idea that one of his books could be good is just not even on his radar.
- msutherl 14y ago
  But it seems the opposite from the interview, no? He seems to believe that he is creating legitimate value. There is no mention of the error in the process.
Confusion 14y ago
Your second link: I have no idea what it says. I read the citation and the first four paragraphs. It sounds like it came out of a postmodernism generator.
- msutherl 14y ago
  I'm sorry to hear that you're not familiar enough with cultural theory to understand the post. Just as somebody unfamiliar with mathematics would be hard-pressed to understand (and understand the point of) the jumble of symbols, it requires some immersion in the field to extract any value from cultural theory. If you can make the time in your life, I recommend it.

potatolicious 14y ago

> "to which he replies 'well, novels don't usually make money'. Wouldn't you think the correct answer would be 'well, it wouldn't be very good'?" Perhaps the same question can be posed to many startup founders in our community. Very often people in the startup scene seem much more interested in extracting profit (or really, just making the exit) rather than creating something good (in whatever way that you might personally define goodness).

baconner 14y ago
Agreed. It's a shame to think about all the interesting things that might be getting built instead. Programming a novel generator is a great example. What a fantastic challenge being overlooked. It reminds me of this great video of Vonnegut graphing the emotional shape of stories. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ&feature=youtu...
michaelt 14y ago
Plenty of developers write software never hoping to make a dime from it or hire anyone else to work on it. But they have little reason to worry about incorporation or branding or 'pivoting' or 'series a funding' or 'growth hacking', and they self-identify as 'open source developers' rather than 'start up entrepreneurs'.

dasil003 14y ago

It's not that he has no sense of humor, it's that the fact that the books aren't good is a foregone conclusion. The idea that one of his books could be good is just not even on his radar.

msutherl 14y ago
But it seems the opposite from the interview, no? He seems to believe that he is creating legitimate value. There is no mention of the error in the process.

Confusion 14y ago

Your second link: I have no idea what it says. I read the citation and the first four paragraphs. It sounds like it came out of a postmodernism generator.

msutherl 14y ago
I'm sorry to hear that you're not familiar enough with cultural theory to understand the post. Just as somebody unfamiliar with mathematics would be hard-pressed to understand (and understand the point of) the jumble of symbols, it requires some immersion in the field to extract any value from cultural theory. If you can make the time in your life, I recommend it.