Eric Ries

Oh, no, I'm so sorry.

I know it's.

But no, listen, we're seeing an epidemic of that stuff because AI tools make fraud and scam so much easier.

Yeah, I call them in the book, mission hopeful.

Because I don't think you have to, you don't have to assume any ill intent on the part of people that are saying this.

And in fact, in the book, I say something that a lot of test readers had a hard time with.

Because I said, look, if someone tells you that they're mission driven, tells you that you can trust them, but they haven't made the corresponding investments in an apparatus to keep those promises, then they are lying to you.

And a lot of people are like, you can't say that about my boss.

That's not fair.

You know, he's a good guy.

He's always a good guy.

But like, I was like, well, what's unfair about it?

Well, he doesn't mean to be lying.

He sincerely believes he will.

I'm like, that's not what I'm saying.

He said you can trust him in the future, but he's lying because he doesn't even know if he's going to be there in the future.

And I think that, again, it's like we've lost our ability to say this with any kind of clarity.

I tell a story in the book of, I read dozens, I mean, literally dozens of essays that people have written after leaving Google.

Long time Google employees, 10 plus years, every single one of them, talking about the loss of the don't be evil ethos at Google.

One of the things we love the most, anyone who was around for the Google IPO remembers the moral clarity of a slogan that's so simple, don't be evil.