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Comment by billyhoffman | Hacker News Reader

Is it just me or does "growth hacking" and having good "hustle" actually means doing sleazy things and being a dick.

I don't understand why Silicon Valley and Startups think acting like this is not only acceptable, but should be applauded.

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I also don't understand why VCs pick companies that are clearly courting a huge lawsuit by providing a platform for people to ignore local laws.

Probably because they see how well AirBnB is doing in the same vein of "ignoring local laws".

Greed.

I think that they found a sweet spot where they can make a lot of money and still get away with it, because companies will get acquihired and VCs recoup their investment before people get fed up and start complaining. And "growth hacking" and "hustle" and the like are just ways of making those practices not trigger pangs of conscience, the way saying "you're being an antisocial, malicious jerk" might.

Every Dark Pattern is the brutal end of blindly following A/B testing.

It is the brutal end of blindly following A/B testing with the bottom line as the controlling variable.

If you were to A/B test for user satisfaction instead (much harder to measure) you'd get a totally different result.

A/B testing is a tool, you can use it for good or bad.

> If you were to A/B test for user satisfaction instead (much harder to measure) you'd get a totally different result.

I think you would pretty much get Amazon.

Strictly from a customer point of view they are the company that would get the highest user satisfaction I would give any company.

They do worry me though, that much power in some verticals is far too open to abuse.

It doesn't have to mean those things, but yes, it often does unfortunately. I still think there are some white hat techniques that can get results, but I'm no expert.

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