👋 Hey there! My name is Abhishek. Welcome to a new edition of The Sunday Wisdom! This is the best way to learn new things with the least amount of effort.
It’s a collection of weekly explorations and inquiries into many curiosities, such as business, human nature, society, and life’s big questions.
My Instagram feed is full of digital artwork and comics stuff. I am not addicted. But I randomly fire it up every now and then. Today I deleted it. I’ll be able to save some time this way. Even 15 minutes would be worth it. As Charles Darwin said, “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”
Now, it’s time for your weekly dose of fat-free wisdom.
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Q: How do you find a balance between ethics and success?
There have been numerous incidents of children becoming addicted to the popular online game PUBG. A friend of mine recently told me about a kid in his neighbourhood who becomes violent and starts abusing his parents whenever he isn’t allowed to play.
This begs me to question, why do we build products? To solve a problem or to make the world a better place, right? To build a successful product, there’s no denying that you need to bring users back. But ethical lines get blurry when addiction becomes a substitute for retention.
Reid Hoffman says that he doesn’t invest in businesses that don’t exploit one of the Seven Deadly Sins. For example, Facebook exploits envy and pride. LinkedIn exploits greed. But when it comes to building a company, you also gotta ask yourself if your end goal is to make the world a better place, or is it to exploit and cash out.1
To be honest, if you want to build a successful product, some form of manipulation is indeed important.2
But there’s good manipulation and there’s bad manipulation. If I manipulate you into building a healthy habit, say exercising everyday, it’s good manipulation. If I manipulate you into eating unhealthy food everyday, it’s bad manipulation.
In the name of building a successful product, if your end goal is to exploit human addiction, and build cigarettes of the 21st century such as PUBG, Fortnite, TikTok, then clearly there’s something very sinister about your intentions. It’s bad manipulation.
Nir Eyal wrote the Bible of getting people addicted to consumer apps such as Snapchat, Instagram, or TikTok. Hooked is literally the handbook of manipulation. According to Eyal, there are four types of manipulators:
Peddler: A peddler doesn’t use the product they are building, but promotes them.
Facilitator: A facilitator uses what they create, and believes that it would significantly improve users’ lives.
Entertainer: An entertainer uses what they create, but cannot in good conscience claim that it improves the lives of the users.
Dealer: A dealer doesn’t use what they sell, and doesn’t believe that it betters human lives.
You would ideally want to be a Facilitator. But it’s not so straight forward.
When asked, “Would I use it?” and, “Will it improve my users’ lives?” I can twist my answers to bend the truth. For example, I like to play video games, so I’ll definitely play PUBG. And yes, games do help relieve stress, so yeah, it definitely improves lives. This way you fool yourself along with others.
When you answer things in such black and white manner, you miss the asymmetry of the upside and downside. Relieving stress via PUBG has a lot of downside than upside. Therefore, what you also have to ask is, “Would I encourage my kids and family members to us it? Would I want them to get addicted to it?” This’ll give you perspective.
You most probably wouldn’t mind having a glass of wine once in a while. 3 You might also think that the world is better with wine than without. But you won’t want your family members to drink everyday, would you? On the other hand, if you love running, you wouldn’t mind encouraging your friends and family members to go for a jog in the morning everyday.
Having said that, any form of addiction is still bad no matter how good the behaviour. You have to put a check on good manipulation as well. For example, journaling is good. Journaling all day doesn’t make sense. Exercising is good, but not when you do it 24/7.4 Similarly, reading is good. But if you only read, and do nothing with the knowledge you gain, you are just like a static library without any practical use.
So apart from good manipulation, you also have to make sure that you don’t manipulate more than necessary.
So, I’m not saying that PUBG and other similar products are pure evil, and nobody should be allowed to play video games. My case is against addiction, not PUBG or alcohol, or smoking. A game or two, or a drink or two once in a while is OK.
If your product makes lives better in the short term, it’s your moral and ethical duty to make sure they don’t engage with the product more than necessary. Therefore an ethical approach would be to implement self-censoring within the system to prevent any kind of addiction.
For example, not allowing school kids to play more than 3 games a day.5 For a habit forming product, you definitely need to bring users back to the app. But you don’t need them to be there all the time.
The goal is not just to build a big business, but also a responsible one. The idea is to build a healthy business, not an addiction. You are not a drug dealer.
In a world like ours, PUBG and Fortnite do have a place. But like with eating, smoking, drinking, exercising, and everything else in life, too much of something is never good.
Tiny Wisdom
Every time you get a new job, immediately start looking for a better one. Chances are that the best job for you won’t become available at precisely the time you declare yourself ready. Your best bet is to always be looking for a better deal. The better deal has its own schedule. Your job is not your job. Your job is to find a better job.
Timeless Insight
In reality, a lot of the times we’re most productive is when we listen to ourselves with our own cues, rather than following prescriptions from other well-intentioned people.
— Paul Jarvis
People often share anecdotes and personal learnings. Their intention might be good, but often well-intended advice might not help you. It’s however important to listen to them, even if you don’t follow them.
Take advice from others, but couple them with your own cues. If your creative energy is maximum at night, there’s no point in taking the advice of becoming an early riser. If you work better amidst chaos, you don’t need advice on deep work. If you are temperature sensitive, an advice to take cold showers might harm you.
Having said that, not all advice is meaningless. Most age old advice is good. For example, reading books was a good advice a thousand years ago. It’s good advice today. It will be a good advice thousand years from now. As a rule of thumb, try to follow advice that has survived the test of time.
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I’ll see you next Sunday,
Abhishek 👋
To make few things clear, a company is not a business. A business is all about cash flow, revenue, DAU/MAU, etc. A company is a mission, a philosophy, and a school of thought. Unfortunately, entrepreneurs often forget about the company while running the business.
The socially acceptable word for manipulation is nudge but I prefer manipulation to remind me to keep things in perspective.
Assuming you aren’t a teetotaller.
Too much exercise often leads to fatigue, decreased immune function, injuries, hormonal imbalances, and adverse cardiovascular effects.
It sounds ludicrous for a business, but if you ask yourself, “Would I want this for the kids in my family?” the answer would most likely be yes.