Of heroics and laziness

A few thoughts on this silly thing: https://blog.pinboard.in/2016/03/my_heroic_and_lazy_stand_against_ifttt/

Imagine if you were a sewer pipe that cleaned up a friend’s bathroom, bringing a great many subscribers to his platform..er..bathroom, for which he profited handsomely.

Now imagine that you asked your profiting friend to help keep things clean, and sustainably so, so that there could be even more enjoyment for all.

But instead of doing his part he wrote a blog post claiming that you were making him work for free and imposing onerous terms.

You would feel surprised.

You would feel surprised because your friend has, in fact, profited from your service. You would also feel surprised because the terms on which you offered to continue the profitable relationship were actually not a land grab by you, and in any event terms which your friend, who is not unsophisticated, could have negotiated with you, but preferred instead to write disingenuous remarks on a blog. Finally, you’d probably feel surprised because notwithstanding the blameless email you wrote to users of your service, praising your friend’s commode but also advising that it would no longer be part of your service, your friend took it personally, claimed he was being made “an asshole”, and then proceeded to state that his decision not to accept your terms because they were not aligned with his self-interest was not his decision at all.

Some important facts to remember in all of this:

1. You make a decision when you are made an offer and decide it’s not in your interest to accept it. You own that decision.
2. When someone asks you to help build something that is beneficial to you and from which you profit directly, they are not asking you to work for free.
3. If you don’t like the terms on which you are being asked to participate in such a joint venture, you can either (a) negotiate or (b) reject the terms.
4. The professional way to accomplish (a) or (b) is to voice your opinion at the negotiating table, talking to the person asking to be your partner.
5. IFTTT is not a sewer pipe. It wasn’t built from public funds. And it wasn’t built for the sole aim of making your platform more useful without any help or commitment by you, for all of perpetuity.
6. IFTTT began as a way to tear down the lack of communication between the many vertical, and often unopen, platforms on the web. Contrary to the assertions made by some in their rapid rush to judgment, I suspect that those who founded IFTTT very much understand the value of an open web and wish to preserve the openness they’ve worked very hard to make more accessible.