logoalt Hacker News

hn_throwaway_99today at 12:44 AM2 repliesview on HN

I hope this doesn't come across as being cynical in my old(er) age, but instead I just hope it's a reflection of reality

Lot's of organizations in the tech and business space start out with "high falutin", lofty goals. Things about making the world a better place, "don't be evil", "benefitting all of humanity", etc. etc. They are all, without fail, complete and total bullshit, or at least they will always end up as complete and total bullshit. And the reason for this is not that the people involved are inherently bad people, it's just that humans react strongly to incentives, and the incentives, at least in our capitalist society, ensure that profit motive will always be paramount. Again, I don't think this is cynical, it's just realistic.

I think it really went in to high gear in the 90s that, especially in tech, that companies put out this idea that they would bring all these amazing benefits to the world and that employees and customers were part of a grand, noble purpose. And to be clear, companies have brought amazing tech to the world, but only insofar as in can fulfill the profit motive. In earlier times, I think people and society had a healthier relationship with how they viewed companies - your job was how you made money, but not where you tried to fulfill your soul - that was what civic organizations, religion, and charities were for.

So my point is that I think it's much better for society to inherently view all companies and profit-driven enterprises with suspicion, again not because people involved are inherently bad, but because that is simply the nature of capitalism.


Replies

deauxtoday at 1:59 AM

> And the reason for this is not that the people involved are inherently bad people, it's just that humans react strongly to incentives, and the incentives, at least in our capitalist society, ensure that profit motive will always be paramount. Again, I don't think this is cynical, it's just realistic.

It's not a reflection of reality, and at your age you should know better.

It is indeed because they're bad people. Why? Because there are tons of organizations that do stick to their goals.

They just don't become worth many billions of dollars. They generally stay small, exactly because that's much healthier for society.

> And the reason for this is not that the people involved are inherently bad people, it's just that humans react strongly to incentives

How we respond to incentives is what differentiates us. When 100 random humans are plucked from the earth by aliens and exposed to a set of incentives, they'll get a broad range of responses to them.

hehajwktoday at 12:50 AM

It is one thing to go against what you believe once you sell out ala Google. Private equity ruins all good things on a long enough time scale.

OAI are deceptive. And have been for some time. As is Sam.