告诉 HN：执行成本低廉，想法再次重要
2 分•作者: keepamovin•6 个月前
我昨天在 Show HN 上发布了一个产品，有了这样的经历。具体是什么产品不重要，但它触发了人们的隐私意识。起初我心想——这他妈什么情况？你们以为我是谁？你们觉得我会费尽心思，精心打造能最大限度减少意外、力求超出预期的产品体验，就是为了找个机会骗你们？你们觉得我会这样糟蹋我的努力和时间，冒着风险、违反我自己的目标，用这么蠢的方式来糟践自己吗？这得有多蠢啊？
但后来我仔细想了想，我意识到，那些我最初想斥之为杞人忧天、对“隐私”问题大惊小怪的人，尽管我当然无意“窥探他们的邮件”，但他们实际上是对的。不是说我，而是指我确实没有认真思考过、也从未经历过的一个世界。
因为有足够多的黑心公司、政府、情报人员和骗子，他们会监视/撒谎/骚扰/跟踪/盗窃，并试图以各种方式侵犯人们的权益。而且他们肆无忌惮地这么做。一些大公司甚至在他们的条款中明确表示他们会这样做。我从未经历过这样的世界；对我来说，这根本不是问题。我只是专注于制作能用、体验好的东西（顺便说一句，即使有了 AI，这也很难做到），但我知道有些人已经面对过这种情况，这是现实的一个方面。它根本不是全部的现实，但它确实存在。所以，人们对此有所警惕是可以理解的。
我只是在发布之前没有充分考虑到这一点。我想我应该加上类似“您的数据归您所有”（尽管，当然是这样——对我来说，这很明显，我为什么还要说出来？）；但我意识到，这个行业运作的方式是，它一直在挖掘人们的数据、窃取数据、盗用数据，并滥用人们的期望和底线，人们对此已经厌倦了，也看清了这一点，所以他们会去寻找。即使它不存在，他们也会认为它可能存在——这是对的。因为这是他们学到的警惕。如果我要发布一个与此相关的产品，那么我必须尊重人们的这种感受。毕竟，难道我不希望明确保证某些可能窃取我想法的服务不会这样做，并明确承诺不这样做吗？是的，我确实希望如此。我只是没想到人们会认为我会这样做。因为我和他们一样——我不想我的数据被盗，所以我当然不会这样做。
但我的想法更像是一个已经信任我默认使用的东西（因为是我自己构建的）的私人用户，而不是一个饱经世故、见多识广的网民，他们已经面对或阅读了无数的骗局和滥用行为。但我想你必须考虑到这一点，因为尤其是在现在，想法不再廉价。它们很有价值。为什么？因为 AI 已经使执行成本变得如此之低。
所以，想法很重要。先发优势很重要。营销很重要。隐私很重要。品牌很重要。声誉很重要。执行是分布式的。想法再次变得有价值，不像老 PG 的文章里说的那样，不要签署保密协议，因为想法很便宜。想法不再便宜。AI 让它们变得有价值。
所以隐私很重要。也就是说，我不认为你必须像 NSA 那样，为所有事情都采用同态端到端后量子安全技术，但你确实必须意识到我们现在所处的环境。我意识到，尽管他们一直在抱怨，但那些杞人忧天的人是对的：我在发布之前没有充分考虑到这一点。
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I had this experience yesterday, launching a product here on Show HN. It doesn't matter what it was for this, but it was something that triggered people's privacy sense. At first I thought — what the actual fuck? Who do you think I am? You think I pour my effort into meticulously crafting product experiences that minimize surprises and try to delight expectations, so that I can actually find some way to scam you? You think I would trash my effort and time like that, and disrespect myself by risking myself, and violating my own objectives with something so stupid? How dumb would that be?<p>But then I thought about it some more, and I realized those I initially wanted to dismiss as pearl-clutching ninnies whinnying about “privacy” when of course I would have no intention of “spying on their emails” were actually right. Not about me, but an aspect of the world that I really hadn't thought much about, nor experienced at all.<p>Because there are enough shady companies, governments, intelligence people, and scammers out there who do spy/lie/harass/stalk/steal and try to violate people six ways to Sunday. And they try it with impunity. Some big corps even put it in their terms that they are doing this. I haven't had any experience of this world; for me it's not even a thing. I'm just focused on making something that works and gives a good experience (which btw really takes a lot, even with AI), but I get that some people have faced this, and it is an aspect of reality. It's not the whole reality at all, but it is an aspect that exists. And so it's understandable that people will have a sense about this.<p>I just didn't think about it enough before launching. I think I should have put things like “Your data remains your own” (even tho, of course it does — to me it's so obvious, why do I even have to say it?); but I realized the way this industry has worked is that it has mined people's data, stolen it, ripped it off, and abused people's expectations and boundaries, and people are sick of it, and wise to it, and have a sense about that, and so they go looking for it. Even when it's not there, they think it could be — and that's right. Because that's the caution they've learned. And if I'm going to launch a product that has some overlap with that, then I have to respect that people will feel that way. After all, wouldn't I want the explicit assurance that some service that could potentially steal my ideas will not, and explicitly commit to not doing so? Yes, I would want that, actually. I just didn't think people would expect I was going to do that. Because I'm just like them — I don't want my data ripped off, so of course I wouldn't.<p>But I was thinking more like a private user who already trusts what I use by default (because I built it), not like a world-weary, wizened netizen who’s faced or read about countless scams and abuses. But I think you have to factor that in, because especially now, ideas aren't cheap anymore. They're valuable. Why? Because AI has made the cost of execution so low.<p>So ideas matter. First mover advantage matters. Marketing matters. Privacy matters. Brand matters. Reputation matters. Execution is distributed. Ideas are valuable again, not like the ol' PG essay about not signing NDAs because ideas are cheap. Ideas are no longer cheap. AI has made them valuable.<p>So privacy matters. That said, I don't think you have to go full-NSA and have homomorphic E2E post-quantum security for everything, but you do have to have a cognizance of the environment in which we now operate. And I realized, for all their whinnying, the pearl-clutchers were correct: I didn't think about that aspect enough before I launched.