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What to Do

(paulgraham.com)
274 points npalli | 1 comments | 29 Mar 25 12:24 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | source
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cloogshicer ◴[29 Mar 25 13:08 UTC] No.43515231[source]▶
> you should at least make sure that the new things you make don't net harm people or the world.

How?

Is the internet a net positive or net negative thing? How about Social Media? Is it maybe even more complex such that we can't tally up positive/negative "points" and a term like "net positive" doesn't even make sense for these things?

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1. asadotzler ◴[31 Mar 25 00:22 UTC] No.43529252[source]▶
You will make nothing so grand as a platform used by billions so that's all irrelevant.

If you make, say, an ovulation app designed to feed user data to companies so they can fire pregnant workers before the company is required to give leave or other benefits, that's bad. Get it? You are not so incapable of distinguishing these things as you feign here. Pretending that everything is a neutral tool that might be misused for bad is child-like. Stop doing that.