

Personalized Porn [SFW] - blackswan
http://gapingvoid.com/2010/01/04/10572/

======
jasonlbaptiste
Reminds me of how we got money for our first servers for Publictivity. We were
in between brainstorms and went down to Publix to get beer since we knew it
was going to be a late night of mockups/product specs/ brainstorms,etc. It was
a couple of weeks before the superbowl and Publix had a "win tickets to the
superbowl contest" going on where you had to show that you were a passionate
NFL fan for your favorite team. No one else competed, so they asked us two
days before the superbowl to go compete in front of a few hundred people + NFL
stars to win those tickets. We were pretty excited, because we knew those
tickets were worth a few grand. We could use that to pay our server
bills+other costs. So, we went. I had the routine of eating a cake in under a
minute and getting everybody hyped up. I didn't win. Frank had the routine of
shaving the Dolphins logo into his chest and being the number one Dolfan:

Video: <http://www.youtube.com/user/publictivity#p/u/2/DP3WtwwoarE>

_Frank won_. We hawked the tickets on the day of the superbowl for about
$3,400 or so. It paid for our original servers + development servers for the
next year. The money was minimal though helpful, but moreso the story is one
worth a whole lot more.

------
wmf
IMO the cleverest part is that "for privacy reasons" he couldn't show any of
his work. It reminds me of the woman who conned the Ivy League saying that she
changed her name due to domestic abuse. Maybe somewhere there's a guy calling
himself the greatest programmer in the world, but he can't answer any
interview questions because it's all classified.

~~~
blhack
_Maybe somewhere there's a guy calling himself the greatest programmer in the
world, but he can't answer any interview questions because it's all
classified._

The government seems to hire a LOT of these people; I meet them all the time.

------
pingswept
That level of lying would be too painful for me, even given the success that
might come from it. As an engineer whose job it is to make reliable systems, I
have strong feelings about the truth. I don't want to behave like that, and I
don't want to be around people who do.

~~~
olliesaunders
It may have been a lie but I enjoyed that lie. When a girl asks you if she
looks pretty (and she doesn't), do you tell the truth? The morality of lies is
a matter of individual perception. That subjectivity is making me less and
less concerned about whether it is right or wrong to lie. These days I think
in cost/benefit trade-offs. The trade-off in this story was a good one, his
reputation doesn't seem to have taken any damage.

~~~
pingswept
_When a girl asks you if she looks pretty (and she doesn't), do you tell the
truth?_

Yes. I do. There are plenty of people who probably think I'm an asshole, but I
think there might be more people who trust me.

I'm not saying that I tell the truth in _absolutely_ every situation. There
are cases where I would lie immediately-- to save a family member from
kidnapping, whatever-- but that's a far cry from lying being merely a weight
on the scales. For me, if I'm thinking about it consciously, weighing whether
I should lie, the answer is no. I'd even go so far as to call lying Bad.

~~~
rythie
However it's a leading question and it most likely she is either feeling
insecure or spent a lot of time getting ready, either way I would suggest not
saying "no" especially if it's your girlfriend.

~~~
pingswept
The person who asks a question hoping for a lie to make her feel better will
not be my girlfriend (plus, I'm lucky in this case in that I think my
girlfriend is dazzling).

But the real point is, I try to avoid people for whom appearances are more
important than truth.

------
spoonboy
I have a sneaking suspicion that this entire story is made up.

~~~
Retric
I have heard this story (about personalized porn ) before reading the blog
post. At the time I wondered how many people would be comfortable doing so,
but in all of NY I figured it was remotely possible. Now, I realize it would
be the perfect lie because it was "obvious" that he would not have any
material left over, and as a rumor it could easily spread.

------
mgunes
Reading this right after reading Clay Shirky's recent "rant about women" was
an interesting experience.

~~~
nixme
In case others missed it like I did:
<http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2010/01/a-rant-about-women/>

And the discussion here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1056689>

------
prodigal_erik
> "Man, you’re a good bullshit­ter," I say. "You knew that about me already,"
> he says.

This guy deliberately lies to "friends" simply because it _might_ benefit him
someday. At best he's a drinking buddy; the author would be out of his mind to
actually trust him.

~~~
Retric
People can be trustworthy in all sorts of ways. Some people will lie all the
time because the truth is boring, but they will also drive 2 hours into the
middle of nowhere to pick your ass up when you break down at 2 am.

~~~
randallsquared
Or maybe they won't, but you'll never really _know_ unless you need them to do
that. That's not "trustworthy"; it's just helpful.

~~~
SapphireSun
That's not necessarily true. Some people compartmentalize things on a need to
know basis. They'll lie about stuff that isn't on the list for fun or profit,
but will absolutely do the right thing if it concerns you.

------
olliesaunders
I'd like more of these social engineering stories on HN.

~~~
tpyo
The number of points you get is how many people also want more social
engineering stories.

~~~
olliesaunders
Taking into account the number of people who actually see my comment.

------
dabent
Did I ever tell you about my first startup? We did top secret project for the
US government and sold to a branch of the government for about $100 million.

The name? Oh, I can't _tell_ you the name. That's top secret!

~~~
nostrademons
True story, I think:

One of the senior engineers at a past employer once worked for a government
contractor. Their product didn't work. At all. And everyone at the company new
it.

However, their customers were all government agencies, and the work was
classified. Which meant that none of them could tell other government agencies
that the product didn't work. At all.

So they went on merrily selling the same non-working product to multiple
agencies, one by one, until they ran out of agencies working on classified
products that didn't already know they were full of shit. At which point I
assume the company went bankrupt and the engineers took their saved-up
salaries and found other jobs.

------
acangiano
Contrary to what this story is trying to teach us, I think the real lesson
here is that it's all about who you know. The key phrase was: _"I liked the
story so much I pitched the idea to a jour na list friend of mine"_. Yes, he
needed a good story or something remarkable to pitch to his journalist friend,
but it was his network of connections that ultimately helped his young, film
maker friend.

~~~
wmf
I disagree; I suspect you could pitch such a crazy story to pretty much any
journalist.

------
MikeCapone
I'm not sure how to feel about this or if there's much of an applicable lesson
for me to be learned from it, but it was an entertaining read.

~~~
brk
There is a lesson there.

Another story along these lines I heard a few years ago is about a guy who
wants to put on a trade show in some industry. This is going to be the first
of a (hopefully) annual occurrence. A great event to pull customers and
businesses together, yadda yadda. Nobody wants to be the first vendor to sign
up for his show. So, he starts calling some 2nd tier companies and telling
them there is "limited space" and "many of their competitors are already on-
board", but of course he can't name specific names.

Once people started thinking it was actually filling up and was going to be a
good event they started to sign up. He managed to fill the whole expo space at
the last minute and everyone lived happily ever after.

Had he not sold on the "lie" it would of never happened... Sometimes you have
to get creative with your marketing and take a chance when you believe in
yourself.

~~~
jamesbritt
'Had he not sold on the "lie" it would of never happened... Sometimes you have
to get creative with your marketing and take a chance when you believe in
yourself.'

So it's OK to lie, because you can put it in scare quotes and talk about it
all worked out in the end?

~~~
kscaldef
When you're out on a job interview and they ask you "Are you interviewing with
anyone else?" or "Do you have any other offers?" or "What's your current
salary?", what are the answers you give? Would you always answer these
questions completely and honestly?

~~~
jamesbritt
"Would you always answer these questions completely and honestly"

Pretty much. If they ask something that's none of their business, I tell them
that, too, as tactfully as possible.

Answer completely? No, not always; people are not entitled to information just
because they ask.

What I try not to do is get people to make decisions based on me willfully and
deliberately making shit up.

When I read stories such as the "custom porn" tale, and people's reactions to
it, I get the sense that the bravado and cleverness of it absolves (or at
least obscures) any issues with deceit.

There are times when lying is not only needed, but the absolute right thing to
do, but that's not decided by what a good story it makes to tell your friends
later.

------
milestinsley
Whether this is entirely true or not, surely the underlying message worth
noting is that you can give the _impression_ you are more successful than you
are. This, of course, translates to the business/startup world where
perception matters.

Regardless of the truthfulness of the story, I think there's something worth
taking away here. (And it's pretty funny!)

------
lsemel
Anyone creative and determined enough to come up with a lie like that to get
around barriers and break into a business, would have creative enough to come
up with an alternate route that doesn't involve lying.

------
vaksel
so if he spent all his money on equipment, had no name, and didn't do the porn
thing to make money...how did he make his living?

~~~
billswift
Once he had the equipment and his story he was able to get a real film job.
That was the point of his story - to get him the job.

------
bmalicoat
I guess the software analogy would be to say that all your code is covered
under NDA, but that doesn't have nearly the power of this tale.

------
dotBen
Further proof that many of Hugh's friends are full of shit.

(there, I said it. It was waiting to be said by someone ffs)

------
Paton
You got to do, what you gotta do.

Unethical, nonetheless.

