
Don’t Be Evil but Don’t Miss the Tech Train - llambda
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/technology/dont-be-evil-but-dont-miss-the-tech-train.html?_r=1&hp
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sopooneo
There is an idea mentioned here that seems to have been quite common in
Silicon Valley during the first boom, and which perhaps is again, that tech
companies are "changing the world for the better", and "making the world a
better place."

Having that in your head as you work on a private, for-profit company seems
very strange to me. Sure, you will make money in relation to how much people
want what you sell, and perhaps they want it because it makes their lives
better, but that's where it ends. As a private business, you take your pay in
_money_ , not karma.

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nostrademons
That seems like an odd perspective. The fact that people are willing to give
you money for what you sell sets a _floor_ on its usefulness, not a ceiling.
It's quite possible (virtually certain, in economic terms) that a good number
of those people value your service at _more_ than what they paid for it;
otherwise they wouldn't have bought it.

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sopooneo
_All_ freely made purchases require that the buyer value the good or service
they receive more than the money they pay.

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nostrademons
Well, there's also the possibility that they value the good or service at
exactly what they paid (eg. a first-price auction), and complications from
information uncertainty (eg. "Buyer's Remorse"). I'd say these are a minority
of transactions, though: if everybody felt shitty every time they bought
something, they wouldn't buy things for very long.

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jaggederest
I always heard of a perfect transaction as one where both parties felt
slightly ripped off, but wouldn't reverse the transaction. People are bad at
empathy.

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gbog
About Google, the only way four them to abide to their "don't be evil" motto
is to step out of business. But then, why not? They have money, they have
brains, they have tools, why should they need to fight with competition? A
gradual move towards a university-like model could be the right thing to do.

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s3b
They would still need to make a lot of money, otherwise they'll end up like
Sun.

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rheide
The so-called 'latest' wi-fi data collection 'brouhaha' was two years ago.
Google's strayed from the path a lot more since then.

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drucken
All these mainstream "tech" stories coming since middle of last year remind me
so much of the last technology bubble.

That said, this article covers a rare point in American press about the
boundaries of social responsibility in business.

