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Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by Drdrdrq on Friday June 26, 2020 @04:57PM (#23656966)
http://paulgraham.com/founders.html

What We Look for in Founders

4. Naughtiness

Though the most successful founders are usually good people, they tend to have a piratical gleam in their eye. They're not Goody Two-Shoes type good. Morally, they care about getting the big questions right, but not about observing proprieties. That's why I'd use the word naughty rather than evil. They delight in breaking rules, but not rules that matter. This quality may be redundant though; it may be implied by imagination.

Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by mercer on Friday June 26, 2020 @05:34PM (#23657315)
Jesus. I imagine getting the 'big questions' right is so vague as to remove any culpability from both YC and those it funds.

I mean, if I had a friend who openly claimed to be 'naughty' in this way, I'd start being very cautious around them.

Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by gmantg on Friday June 26, 2020 @06:21PM (#23657728)
YC is right, though. People who play by others rules rarely succeed. All these senior managers, vps, execs, business owners arent known for following the silly rules.
Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by rapind on Saturday June 27, 2020 @01:16AM (#23659682)
Basically our society rewards douchebaggery...
Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by econcon on Saturday June 27, 2020 @03:38AM (#23660164)
Nearly all products, markets and human interactions operate on specific model which makes some assumptions, those assumptions often end up as rule - so that the model stay predictable for the people governing it.

By not following those assumptions (rules) you can make a new better model which might have better accuracy at representative real world problem than the existing model.

It doesn't mean that it's unethical or morally wrong. It doesn't have to be.

Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by npunt on Friday June 26, 2020 @07:07PM (#23658048)
This might be better framed as D&D's chaotic good alignment.

I find it weird to say good founders should 'delight in breaking rules', as that is a really consumer tech biased (and frankly, privileged teenage male) point of view, where external stakes are relatively low.

That attitude can be pretty counterproductive in a lot of important industries. It may be necessary to break certain rules to achieve a larger common good, but to bias toward breaking them (rather than to see it as simply sometimes necessary) represents one of tech's worse qualities, and probably does a lot to filter out a lot of potential founders.

Also take issue with the idea that successful founders are 'usually good people'. At least in my experience most are in the chaotic neutral camp where they generally don't care much about externalities as long as they're not too bad or seriously affect them, and their ideas about 'changing the world' are generally indistinguishable from their own personal success.