"building beautiful, meaningful things. Things that people want."
Just because people want what you've built does not necessarily make it meaningful. Meaning is a very subjective, personal thing, based on your core values. What person x finds meaningful and is willing to pay for, person y may think is meaningless. So ask yourself whether you want to build something meaningful to you, based on your core values or do you just want to build the next hot game/app/whatever, and get rich. There's nothing wrong with the latter, but be honest with yourself.
> So ask yourself whether you want to build something meaningful to you, based on your core values or do you just want to build the next hot game/app/whatever, and get rich. There's nothing wrong with the latter, but be honest with yourself.
I didn't read anything in that piece to justify such cynicism and condescension. The author's motivations seem to be anything but financial. It sounds to me like he's after inspiration on a more personal level.
Don't you think you're being a bit too meta-critical? That looks like a pretty straight forward list to me. The author wants to build things that are:
* Beautiful
* Meaningful (to him at least)
* Desired
I'll grant you that desirable does not always make something meaningful, and vice versa, but what does that have to do with anything? How is it -- in any way -- disingenuous to want to build meaningful things that are also desirable?
Hell, even if he's dead wrong about what's really "meaningful" to a significant population of people, it doesn't strike me as some fallacious goal. It seems like genuine good will.
That statement is a conflation of a YC/PG mantra, "make things people want" (http://paulgraham.com/good.html), and that of Dev Bootcamp "build beautiful, meaningful things." They may be opposing things, but I tend to think that meaningful things are those that have impact on others. You're right, even if it has meaning, people may not want it.
Although, I think the end of a great start up/company/person may be an achievement of both.
Comments
"building beautiful, meaningful things. Things that people want."
Just because people want what you've built does not necessarily make it meaningful. Meaning is a very subjective, personal thing, based on your core values. What person x finds meaningful and is willing to pay for, person y may think is meaningless. So ask yourself whether you want to build something meaningful to you, based on your core values or do you just want to build the next hot game/app/whatever, and get rich. There's nothing wrong with the latter, but be honest with yourself.
> So ask yourself whether you want to build something meaningful to you, based on your core values or do you just want to build the next hot game/app/whatever, and get rich. There's nothing wrong with the latter, but be honest with yourself.
I didn't read anything in that piece to justify such cynicism and condescension. The author's motivations seem to be anything but financial. It sounds to me like he's after inspiration on a more personal level.
Don't you think you're being a bit too meta-critical? That looks like a pretty straight forward list to me. The author wants to build things that are:
* Beautiful
* Meaningful (to him at least)
* Desired
I'll grant you that desirable does not always make something meaningful, and vice versa, but what does that have to do with anything? How is it -- in any way -- disingenuous to want to build meaningful things that are also desirable?
Hell, even if he's dead wrong about what's really "meaningful" to a significant population of people, it doesn't strike me as some fallacious goal. It seems like genuine good will.
I tend to agree.
That statement is a conflation of a YC/PG mantra, "make things people want" (http://paulgraham.com/good.html), and that of Dev Bootcamp "build beautiful, meaningful things." They may be opposing things, but I tend to think that meaningful things are those that have impact on others. You're right, even if it has meaning, people may not want it.
Although, I think the end of a great start up/company/person may be an achievement of both.