[jasode]

>VCs and their money are the bad guys, because the dynamics of their [the VCs] investment

You're repeating the same "outsourcing of blame" to VCs that I was trying to short circuit.

VCs as an abstraction are a convenient target but that doesn't mean they are the correct target.

The founders of Github such as Chris Wanstrath, Tom Preston-Werner, et al have agency and autonomy. Why are they specifically not included in our analysis?

In other words, why aren't we saying this:

>CW & TPW's desire for VC money are the bad guys, because the dynamics of their request for VC investment

It seems wrong that analysis, blame, and frustration seems to gravitate towards VCs and terminates only at the VCs -- instead of the founders who willingly asked the VCs for the money.

Yes, DHH is against VC money. But maybe CW and TPW don't think about Github exactly the same way as DHH thinks about Basecamp.

[ghaff]

VCs are a convenient abstract bogeyman. Yes, VCs do tend to encourage a grow big or go home mentality but it is, as you say, the founders who wanted that sort of investment.

It's also the case that, as soon as someone here suggests that a startup doesn't need to operate in that manner, someone--as certainly as the sun will rise in the east--will post Paul Graham's startup definition and argue that you're not a real startup without a growth-first mentality.

[myWindoonn]

You're super-close. Money is the "bad guy". It might not appear to have agency or autonomy, but that is because humans are not good at perceiving intangible power structures.

In other words, why aren't we saying this:

>Money is the bad guy, because its presence, uneven distribution, cult of worshipers, fungibility, and inherent ties to social power structures are unhealthy influences on the founders of Github

[pm90]

I feel like I should post Francisco D'Anconia's Money speech here....

Money by itself isn't the "bad guy"; its a store of value. Like Technology it can be used for good or bad. We have structured our society to reward greed with unbelievable wealth. Like how can someone spend billions of dollars of their wealth? What is the need for someone to own all that wealth? And yet we all take that as given and aspire to it.

[jchrisa]

Beyond money, it's the logic of commoditization that is the bad guy.