What are some other examples of cargo culting in tech and startups?

I love that KZfaq CC kept transcribing “cargo culting” as “call girl quilting”.

Software engineerings do that as well by blindly adding tech that's not necessary for their companies current stage and needs.

I love the dynamic between these two guys, great energy and vibe. Keep it up!

One example that comes to mind is you have to live in Silicon Valley to start a tech startup. I believe you make it with what you have and where you are.

I was so obsessed to Cargo-cult eBay and Google back in 2008. I didn't succeed to build the exact product(or even a good one), but I learnt a lot.

Great points - also if your startup is intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically sometimes there will be a lot more successful foundations made, as it becomes not just about money but purpose. Which, if we are seeing anything from the ad fatigue in the the public, focus on purpose and authenticity has more traction than just kicking pain points

Thank you guys for making such videos! gives a lot of motivation to people who don't believe in the superficial facade of modern day startup buzz.

I love these guys! They make these lessons so fun! 💓

But does the superficial "looking like x" not also influence investors decisions? What are your thoughts on this? Does it just filter out bad investors, so it doesnt matter?

00:35 : "call girl quilting"🤣🤣🤣 yes please!

In Permaculture we say "From Pattern to Detail " , You need to understand the pattern to get details that wor fo your particular context

I learn so much from these two. Thank you for all the wisdom you two share!

I don’t know but wearing a black turtleneck really did convince people that Elizabeth Holmes was the female Steve Jobs. 😂

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Coming Up 00:19 - Cargo Culting Explained 00:35 - What Is It? 01:47 - Classic Variety 02:18 - Obsessed With Google 04:24 - Facebook Playbook 05:33 - Uber: Spend As Much Money As Possible 06:41 - Why It Worked? 06:47 - Google: Hiring Many Smart People 07:38 - Facebook: Not Charging Users 08:59 - Uber 10:27 - Morden Cargo Culting: Copying Companies That Haven't Succeeded. 12:11 - Founders Are Focused On The Superficial Things 13:15 - Three Levels Of Cargo Culting 13:41 - Think Through The User's Eyes 14:48 - You Can't Just Copy & Paste: Plagiarism vs Borrowing Good Ideas

The most prevalent example of this right now is integrating AI into anything and everything without seemingly giving it a thought. I mean, it's one thing to actually recognize the value AI can bring to your product but it's a whole other thing to just assume adding AI automatically means you're not going to be left behind and become obsolete. I feel like currently there's much more of the latter.

So true! You can’t copy your way to success.

Integrated thinking is the key note, thanks guys

We turned down three guys in Shibuya (Japan) because their idea sucked, and then they got funded, and bought an _Exotic Red Car_ and drove it around, slowly, in traffic, with three guys in it (T-tops removed, one dude cracking and destroying the center console) and overheating it. They took the money and skipped to the bro-success stage in one hop.

What is each of your networth?

as other have somewhat pointed to, this is a psychological phenomenon, but it comes with a positive side too. self suggesting yourself will work as long as your ideas are concordant with reality, but if you lack a manifesto or mission you will not be motivated to take action. product wise, you just need to solve a problem. but you do need to track attention to your brand, and learning from the best is not a bad idea. as long as you copy attitude, not just innest their ideas into another context :)

Hahahaha I like how the subtitles turned it into "call girl quilting".

Thanks for doing these!

Subtitles - Michael 'Cyborg' lol😂

Interesting how they tried to avoid a proper explanation of where the cargo cult term came from

they blindly copy because they also know VCs will blindly fund them. nobody cares about real profit.

Great episode gentlemen! 😊

7:13 Easier to find great talent after an econ crash 11:27 Copying something that's not working 13:16 Levels of cargo culting 13:42 End thoughts on how to copy right

Nobody: … Absolutely Noone: … Michael Seibel: Yes. 😂🎉 We love it - keep the YC content coming!

I think it could be portrayed as saving time by not iterating the same efforts done by someone, so just copy and step-up one step ahead.

I believe the saying about Facebook/Privacy youse was trying to remember is "It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission" or something in that ball park

One of the superficial things that startups do, mentioning that they are "Backed by YC" on their website and their Linkedin, how the users are going to benefit from that?

Thanks

The whole "Dont redesign the wheel" phrase has gotten many startup copy catting themselves. When you copy, copy right.

Theranos was the ultimate Silicon Valley cargo cult.

Love this channel, love these two guys particularly, appreciate the good advice in general... but they missed the WW2 origin story: The air strips were made on jungle islands of the Pacific war of World War Two... the air strips were put there as part of a total-loss operation...war is not profitable to the entity that wages it. Not getting political, but the air strips were put in places that pertained to MILITARY operations against Japan, aka, the locations were THE WORST possible place for an airstrip to "bring you the cargo". Long point right? Startups are 90% based on pure nonsense, wrong customers, no customers, no future customers, VC's are your friend. All totally insane in my book.

KZfaq CC: 00:18 "This is Michael Cyborg..." 🤖

13:46 I really like how Jan from WhatsApp did things. Him and his team was focused on the user. They were focused on making a good product and I think all companies and founders can learn from that.

serious question though: trying to copy something that worked somewhere else is an understandable gut instinct. but what about something like "state of devops report" that is more data oriented and trying to apply that to a company? i can still see how this might end up in the cargo culting end of the spectrum when it goes awry without carefully considering your individual context.

Adding AI to your company doesn’t make you an AI company. Also using chat gpt in your company’s product does not make you an AI company.

Thank you!

I thought they were referring to Threads

prefer a lower and more zoomed-in camera angle

I cannot stand how many terms and phrases the tech startup industry creates. Similar to the excessive amount of “buzzwords” or acronyms in the industry. It’s like you’re trying to blame, put off, judge, or create an excuse to side-step any association with new founders who didn’t have a pre-existing career in tech.

This video: "YES" "YES" *NODS HEAD* "YES"

modern cargo cult=AI start up

"Do things that don't scale" is often misused.

It would be great if you could also talk about excellence versus mediocrity based out of how startups work.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.

Great discussion!

"I have to have a co-founder..." - oh wait, that's the cargo-culting VCs *do* want you to do. For their own reasons.

Dalton is such a geek😂. He always says thanks at the end

lol, turn on cc for comedic effect

so much wisdom !

Do you mean like CLONING?

lyft worked

This stuff only worked because of free VC money due to zero interest rates. This has been great since 2008. The party is over

Do you remember Google Labs? Microsoft Labs? circa 2000, "we're going to hire 5000 PhD's"? Anyone?

Amazing stuff, thank you for all these little insights, absolutely invaluable. I'm creating a platform where I can reward users for their contributions. Let's achieve great things together!

Monkey see, Monkey do. Monkey me, Monkey new.

Surprised how oblivious these guys are. A lot of these predate Google/Facebook/Uber.

:)

Thats not the etymology if cargo cult at all. A cargo cult is when pacific islanders found cargo from crash planes on their island in wwii. There is a cargo cult around prince phillip for example. They worship him like a god as he gives free cargo from the air. You could also just use the term “Superstitious pigeons or skinners box” to refer to the point you are making en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult