[edw]

Tim's thoughts dovetail nicely with the Mathbabe "Microfinance is mostly a scam" story also on the front page at the moment. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23662482)

Technological change always causes collateral damage, and, having been in the business for 25+ years, I can't say people were previously more tuned into the negative consequences of our creations in 1994. With every passing day, however, our power to quickly and sweepingly change the structure of physical and social reality grows, and too many investors give their ethical and moral obligations no more thought than an eight year-old does while burning ants with a magnifying glass.

There's a place for thinking about the world through a spreadsheet, but before pouring tens of billions of dollars into science experiments on human civilization, as a professional and a citizen and a human, you have an obligation to pause and look around before pulling the trigger on a deal.

Taking an example from some time ago, I believe Groupon was a singularly ill-conceived and pernicious business akin to payday lending. And perhaps there's a place for payday lending (or microfinance) but the ability to wave your hands and exclaim "(fin)tech start-up!" allows you to avoid the reputational damage usually associated with working in such milieus.