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Comment by renewiltord | Hacker News Reader

What, really, do you think makes people act a certain way? Do you think they're like "I sit on a throne of dead hotelier skulls! What is will be no more! Now is the season of EVIL!"? Or do you think they earnestly think "Reducing the barrier to short-term rentals will make many people happy and make us probably very wealthy".

Come on, dude.

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I had to deal with 4 illegal AirBNB units in my small apartment complex. Above me, to the left and right of me.

I had multiple break-in attempts, attempted physical altercations and loud parties on weeknights.

Airbnb ignored complaints, my landlord ignored complaints, it took Covid-19 to get rid of the parasitical infection on my peace of mind.

They certainly are wealthy, but I was not happy. Well-intentioned residential zoning laws were ignored at my expense.

People are really good at rationalizing things that make them rich. A founder’s earnest feelings about their business’s externalities should never be taken at face value.

> A founder’s earnest feelings about their business’s externalities should never be taken at face value.

Maybe that's your strategy to VC investing. I don't think it's particularly good to apply a zero or negative coefficient to this trait. But that's okay, the market shall speak on this one.

The market only cares about money.

Yes, exactly. And determining leading indicators of what will make money is hard. I think smart people will put non-zero positive coefficients on the earnestness that YC is talking about here.

Given the number of regulations ignored or just outright broken, given that I expect to live next to neighbors and not a hotel in my suburban neighborhood, given that it is "terms-of-service for thee but not for me", I'd go with your first choice. 'cuz is sure is hell isn't "let's make the world a better place" if that means spamming Craigslist and ignoring local zoning laws.

Personally, I think AirBnB is earnestly happy to cash in on the situation where the apartment next to mine that I'm paying $1600 a month for is rented out to people who are there to loudly party until 6AM on a Wednesday night-Thursday morning while I have to get up and go to work and try to have some semblance of an intellect available. Fortunately I've since purchased a modest house in a quiet neighborhood but gorram!

Definitely the skulls of dead hoteliers.

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