Re:Ask HN: Have you ever regretted working on a product?
by wpietri on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @02:58PM
(#18505533)
I appreciate the comment, but that coffee shop is not zero sum in two important ways.
One, if you're selling coffee every day to people, then you are creating value for all the people who say, "Hey, this was a good purchase. I'll come back tomorrow." So it's definitely not zero sum in the main economic sense. Value is created with every cup.
Two, if you open up next near another coffee shop, that's still not zero sum. More people will get coffee. Your better coffee means that people will get more for their money. Maybe your competition will force neighboring businesses to up their game. And even if another business ends up closing and exactly no new customers get served, that's still not zero sum, in that you're providing a better product.
I agree big financial firms are a mix of productive and rent-seeking behavior, although a lot of their nominally productive behavior is just helping other rent-seekers, so I think the truly positive-sum service is pretty small. I also disagree that rent-seeking is ethical. That some in the industry consider it "mandatory" is pure self-justification, a way of passing the moral buck.
One, if you're selling coffee every day to people, then you are creating value for all the people who say, "Hey, this was a good purchase. I'll come back tomorrow." So it's definitely not zero sum in the main economic sense. Value is created with every cup.
Two, if you open up next near another coffee shop, that's still not zero sum. More people will get coffee. Your better coffee means that people will get more for their money. Maybe your competition will force neighboring businesses to up their game. And even if another business ends up closing and exactly no new customers get served, that's still not zero sum, in that you're providing a better product.
I agree big financial firms are a mix of productive and rent-seeking behavior, although a lot of their nominally productive behavior is just helping other rent-seekers, so I think the truly positive-sum service is pretty small. I also disagree that rent-seeking is ethical. That some in the industry consider it "mandatory" is pure self-justification, a way of passing the moral buck.