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Comment by TheGRS | Hacker News Reader

I'm tired of hearing this opinion because its overly simplistic. Anyone expressing this opinion likely would praise a company for growth through innovation. They don't hate growth, they hate companies who are scrounging for additional price value without adding intrinsic value. If Apple came out with the next device/car/service that was a big value add to our lives I'm sure this opinion doesn't come back up in that instance.

Growth mindset is a good thing overall. And sometimes you get growth through pretty shitty means. I can't really throw out "growth" altogether just because a lot of companies employ accountants, MBA executives, and lawyers.

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You don’t have to guess what I’d likely think. You can just ask. I hate growth for growth sake. I hate growth when it pushes companies to do shitty things.

I don’t hate growth in general. I hate it when it’s the only driving force.

Growth mindset is a bit good thing overall. We might disagree on that. As a byproduct of other drivers, like innovation, sure, I’m cool with that.

I still think its overly simplistic. One man's growth for growth sake is another man's innovation to gain some unrealized value. I'm not a huge fan of penny-pinching either, but there is good in finding alternative paths for your expenses. Sometimes its crappy for the end product, sometimes you save a million dollars a year by printing stamps instead of buying them. And a company should be expected to defend its business practices in court, but sometimes they're scummy practices that the general public disagrees with.

But I find it difficult to separate these just on the idea of growth being a bad mindset. Lack of ethics or quality mindset might be the better thing to go after here, since that seems to be where most of the disagreeable actions come from.

Of course is overly simplistic. It’s a rant. I’m not trying to propose an alternative here because I’m not an idiot and I know there aren’t any.

It’s human nature. If one stops doing it someone else will take their place.

I just hate the state of the world in this specific context.

And again, I don’t have anything against growth itself. Growth is a byproduct. I have an issue when growth becomes a motivating force. Because it pushes well intentioned people in wrong directions.

The entire enshittification of the web is a testament of that.

There was a time when companies, local ones, were happy to have reached a steady state. You make a product people want, you’re earning more than you’re spending, you’re employing a bunch of people and that’s fine.

That entire concept seems to be forgotten because of this silly growth at all cost mindset.

That’s what bothers me.

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