Ryan Holota
8 HN mentions · mentioned in 7 months, 2013–2021
0:10 · 1.1M views · Oct 5, 2011
The South Park clip in which underpants gnomes explain their three-phase business plan: collect underpants, then a question mark, then profit.
HN uses it as a joke shorthand for startups or plans with a missing middle step and no real business model.
8 comments from Hacker News
Call me skeptical, but it reminds me of this video Like other commenters have said, how did she, being a non-technical founder with no team, could set up the (what appears to be custom-made) website? It's like going to a hackathon and claim that you build an app within 24 hours, but actually have implemented majority of it beforehand and making it a "library". Anyway, looking at the positive side, had the slides contain more detail, I believe it can be inspiring for many people and not received with skepticisms.
The South Park underwear gnomes joke was a parody of dot-com startups (i.e. around 1999/2000) who didn't have a clear business model. this video
> I think the argument about "hobbies" is a long term one, not one that applies to people who just got laid off. I think that's the reality, but I am not sure that people like White from the article really acknowledge this. That is, he trivializes it by kind of offhandedly suggesting that it is good for people to have these new options open up as a result of losing their jobs. But, in fact, what is required is a radical restructuring of our economy and society at large (including our ideas about work) in order to arrive at what he suggests. This is not a point that can simply be glossed over or assumed if he is being earnest or even remotely serious about addressing the automation issue. Reminds me of this: this video . Step one is the automation of workers. Step three is this perfect utopian society, wherein we all just pursue our "hobbies".
If name dropping high profile people is an important part of your businesses marketing strategy, then it seems reasonable to pursue that <i>if it leads to more revenue/profit</i> I think OP's issue relates to the weird, self-referential culture of Silicon Valley, where success is measured in buzz and money raised. It goes something like: Build free software product -> ? -> profit where ? = Get lots of buzz/hype, grow userbase quickly, raise VC money Or course, this is similar to another business plan: this video
Came here to say the exact same thing; thanks for saying it better than I ever could. I don't get the basic income thing - pay people to not work? What? Where's the money come from? How to you prevent massive inflation and a massive decrease in economic output as people quit their jobs? Who decides who gets this basic income? This all reminds me of a south park episode: this video