
Paul Buchheit: Insights into "Don't be evil" - mattjaynes
http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2007/06/quick-dbe.html
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budu3
I think it's difficult for a company not to be "evil" once they grow to the
size of Google. A company of that size has to please too many stakeholders. I
think Craigslist is the perfect model of how a company can avoid being evil --
stay small.

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erdos2
On the subject of morality, I suggest Bernard Gert's "Common Morality:
Deciding What to Do."

<http://www.amazon.com/Common-Morality-Deciding-What-Do/dp/0195314212/>

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ralph
Paul, originally I heard "do no evil" as the motto, then after a bit it
altered into the current "don't be evil". Was it ever the former or was that
just Chinese whispers at the time? Personally, I prefer it.

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paul
No, it was never "do no evil" -- it just got misquoted a lot.

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amichail
Could someone tell me why Google allowed advertising by essay writing
companies for such a long time? What happened to "Don't be evil"?

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budu3
Your evil might not be Larry and Serge's evil.

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amichail
For a company that values merit, it seems strange that it would help students
to cheat.

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Alex3917
If you're into educational theory, you might like Alfie Kohn's book No
Contest: The Case Against Competition. It's a really good look at the systemic
effects of competition. It touches on cheating among other things.

It's funny, these days I find myself mostly reading counter-intuitive stuff. I
figure if it's intuitive, I'm probably smart enough to have figured it out
already. This book (and his other book, Punished by Rewards) is a really good
example of something that just diffs with your current knowledge.

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palish
Well, could you give an example of an evil product that's being sold right
now, that was known to be evil from the start?

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mynameishere
_If you honestly believe that kids are well served by drinking a dozen
spoonfuls of sugar every morning before school_

Nope. Nor pron. Nor warez.

