I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the reservation thing, while being a bit sketchy in that the guy uses a fake name, doesn't seem as abhorrent as

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the reservation thing, while being a bit sketchy in that the guy uses a fake name, doesn't seem as abhorrent as people seem to be making it out to be. If the guy was printing money hand over fist like an evil villain that'd be one thing, but it sounds like a weekend hack. An experiment. You know, the type of thing we encourage here so as to learn something. He cancels the reservation if nobody buys it. He's focusing on restaurants where demand outstrips supply (by definition.) My guess is the net effect of this experiment is probably increased revenue for the restaurants involved. It would be interesting if he presented numbers. It's an interesting experiment. Should it be literally turned into a business, as-is? No, because it requires a) lying on the phone and b) leaves the possibility open that restaurants are going to leave money on the table, so beyond being unethical you probably don't want to make enemies of the people who are providing the service your customers are paying for. It's not viable, and it's both dumb and unethical to form a serious venture around as-is. But let's admit it, he's found something interesting that perhaps with some tweaks could be turned into something disruptive. In the startups I've worked stuff we ran small stuff like this all the time: things that we'd never try to scale since we were breaking the rules a bit, but we were trying to learn something and knew the way we were executing on it "in the small" did not cause any real harm. But if we are going to just hang people out to dry immediately for releasing small experiments to test gaps in the market or test boundaries, then we've lost what it means to be a hacker. I don't like the idea that my entire reputation can be ruined if I launch a weekend hack that ends up on valleywag and starts a hate train fueled by wider hatred around the tech industry. Part of the reason startups work is because you can bend the rules a bit while you are small and under the radar while you look around at the edges for the opportunity for a real business you can stand behind. But with Twitter and the tech press even single individuals no longer seem to be able to stay off the radar if their experiment will drive clicks from angry readers and re-enforce their stereotypes about the tech scene.