But I think you’re trying to draw an update that’s something like “tech startups should be doing an unbiased search through viable valuable business, but they’re clearly not”, or maybe, “tech startups are supposed to be able to solve a large fraction of our problems, but if they can’t solve this, then that’s not true”, and I don’t think either of these conclusions seem that licensed from the dating data point.
Neither of those, exactly.
I’m claiming that the narrative around the startup scene is that they are virtuous engines of [humane] value creation (often in counter to a reactionary narrative that “big tech” is largely about exploitation and extraction). It’s about “changing the world” (for the better).
This opportunity seems like a place where one could have traded meaningfully large personal financial EV for enormous amounts of humane value. Apparently no founder wanted to take that trade. Because I would expect there to be variation in how much funders are motivated by money vs. making a mark on the world vs. creating value vs. other stuff, that fact that (to my knowledge) no founder went for it, is evidence about the motivations of the whole founder class. The number of founders who are more interested in creating something that helps a lot of people than they are in making a lot of money (even if they’re interested in both) is apparently very small.
Now, maybe startups actually do create lots of humane value, even if they’re created by founders and VC’s motivated by profit. The motivations of of the founders are only indirect evidence about the effects of startups.
But the tech scene is not motivated to optimize for this at all?? That sure does update me about how much the narrative is true vs. propaganda.
Now if I’m wrong and old OkCupid was only drastically better for me and my unusually high verbal intelligence friends, and it’s not actually better than the existing offerings for the vast majority of people, that’s a crux for me.
Neither of those, exactly.
I’m claiming that the narrative around the startup scene is that they are virtuous engines of [humane] value creation (often in counter to a reactionary narrative that “big tech” is largely about exploitation and extraction). It’s about “changing the world” (for the better).
This opportunity seems like a place where one could have traded meaningfully large personal financial EV for enormous amounts of humane value. Apparently no founder wanted to take that trade. Because I would expect there to be variation in how much funders are motivated by money vs. making a mark on the world vs. creating value vs. other stuff, that fact that (to my knowledge) no founder went for it, is evidence about the motivations of the whole founder class. The number of founders who are more interested in creating something that helps a lot of people than they are in making a lot of money (even if they’re interested in both) is apparently very small.
Now, maybe startups actually do create lots of humane value, even if they’re created by founders and VC’s motivated by profit. The motivations of of the founders are only indirect evidence about the effects of startups.
But the tech scene is not motivated to optimize for this at all?? That sure does update me about how much the narrative is true vs. propaganda.
Now if I’m wrong and old OkCupid was only drastically better for me and my unusually high verbal intelligence friends, and it’s not actually better than the existing offerings for the vast majority of people, that’s a crux for me.