corwinstephen

A year or so ago, I saw an article suggesting that the tech industry was becoming the new Wall St, attracting greedy people with little grounding in reality, and having an overwhelmingly negative impact on the people whose lives they touch. Though I understood the sentiment, at it didn't really strike a chord with me. The people I was working with, even the ones I didn't particularly care for, were still usually producing something of value, and that to me seemed like the most important thing.

Today I had an experience that made me reconsider.

Via a friendly intro, I'd crossed paths with a local founder, and we decided to get coffee and chat. Everything was fine until the part where I mentioned that I was impressed by his company's website and asked him who'd done it.

"Get this," he told me. "A 15 year old kid did it. For free."

I asked him how he'd convinced a 15 year-old kid to build him a free website.

"All he asked for in exchange for the website was $1,000 in bit coin," he said. "I told him I'd pay him, but then I just never did."

When I asked him why, he said they'd never signed a contract or anything, so why should he? I imagine he picked up on the weird look I was giving him, because he started justifying it, talking about how it was a valuable life lesson for the kid.

I walked away feeling pretty disgusted.

I know that was just one experience. But man, people ripping off those lower on the totem pole than them with no regard to how it affects them for the sake of their own personal gain, that sure sounds a lot like Wall St.