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Somebody has been plagiarizing pg: http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html OP: "Fix something that’s broken. In business, it
by pchristensen 17y ago
Somebody has been plagiarizing pg: http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html
OP: "Fix something that’s broken. In business, it seems to me that the traditional banking business models are broken or at least no longer fit the purpose. On the other end of the spectrum, Internet dating sites don’t seem to work. They have millions of users, so they must be promising something people want. And yet they work horribly. Just ask anyone who uses them."
to pg: "One way to make something people want is to look at stuff people use now that's broken. Dating sites are a prime example. They have millions of users, so they must be promising something people want. And yet they work horribly. Just ask anyone who uses them. "
Or "Take a luxury and make it a commodity. People must want something if they pay a lot for it. It is a very rare product that can't be made dramatically cheaper if you try. When you make something dramatically cheaper, you sell more, and people start to use it in different ways. For example, once cell phones were so cheap that most people had one, people started using them as cameras and Internet devices."
to pg's : "Another classic way to make something people want is to take a luxury and make it into a commmodity. People must want something if they pay a lot for it. And it is a very rare product that can't be made dramatically cheaper if you try.
This was Henry Ford's plan. He made cars, which had been a luxury item, into a commodity. But the idea is much older than Henry Ford."
- skmurphy 17y agoGood catch: I took a hard look and have to agree that the number and phrasing of the exact matches seem to be well above the level of coincidence. I posted this on the site, curious as to what the reply will be. --- I posted a pointer to this on http://news.ycombinator.com/ http://news.ycombinator.com/ at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=661440 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=661440 and this reply http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=661875 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=661875 pointed out exact matches for six sentences in an October 2005 essay by Paul Graham at http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html here are the matches: [dating sites] They have millions of users, so they must be promising something people want. And yet they work horribly. Just ask anyone who uses them. [T]ake a luxury and make it into a commmodity. People must want something if they pay a lot for it. And it is a very rare product that can't be made dramatically cheaper if you try. Were you influenced by Graham's essay? The number and length of exact matches seem well above the level of coincidence.
- skmurphy 17y agoMartin Zwilling wrote back Thanks for the note. I have added a credit link at the end, and an apology note as a comment to the blog following yours. I’ll be more diligent on this in the future He also added a postscript to the post this afternoon P.S. I would like to give credit to an October 2005 essay by Paul Graham for a couple of the ideas above, at http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html