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Comment by dpcheng2003 | Hacker News Reader

dpcheng2003

It turns out smart people do dumb things all the time. The trick isn't being smart all the time, which is difficult.

Rather, you want to be smart at the right time and convince other incredibly smart people to do something incredibly dumb in that fleeting moment.

Last I checked, most of us have never created a messaging app that grew to 350M messages in two years. More importantly, most of us didn't also then convince smart investors to let us cash out at some ridiculous valuation.

Props to the Snapchat guys and I hope they figure out monetization but at the end of the day, they got their FU money and built something huge. That's a win in my book.

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Yes, yes they do.

But like you said, that's fine.

Props to the SnapChat guys for cashing out, raising a ton of venture from sheep VCs and getting millions of users? YES, absolutely.

Props to the SnapChat guys for creating something of value, substance, technology, IP, etc. None, zero. Just another BS app riding the wave of the top-10 in the appstore.

It's not a WIN for society when you create garbage that has some sort of value to it. It's just more clutter. But maybe it doesn't matter, people need entertainment, people need dick picks, bad Hollywood movies, Miley Cyrus - these are all business commodities. And if you're capable of that vs. nothing else, good for you.

“You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.” Warren Buffett

"Props to the SnapChat guys for cashing out, raising a ton of venture from sheep VCs..."

Is this what our industry has come to? Congratulations for raking gullible investors? Like, that's not only socially acceptable, but a worthy outcome that should be applauded?

Probably a lot of people's goals around here? Whether they're going to state it so bluntly or not.

Evidence that if you pile enough money up in one place the sociopaths will rush in like someone pulled a drain plug.

I think many of us prefer to work on problems that are more interesting, even if one can't get rich doing it. You could also make money running porn sites or casinos, but it's just not very interesting to code to base desires.

Let's also not forget that most of these people who can rich via this route know for a fact that they are selling a shit sandwich to the company that is acquiring them. Do SnapChat founders really think this business is going to make billions in revenue and survive for years? This is the equivalent of 'flipping' in real estate. Take the money and run. You can admire it, but don't ignore the damage and waste it leaves behind to the main stream investors whose equity was handed out in an acquisition for these kinds of companies.

I'm much more interested in companies which create lasting value or solve real world problems.

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