You're kind of agreeing with them though aren't you? It might seem like a really useful feature but, like Patreon, it might not be worth the time and effort for anyone.
You're just a lot more focussed on making us all believe it's the persons fault somehow.
"You're just a lot more focussed on making us all believe it's the persons fault somehow."
Fault is awfully subjective so I'll leave that be. It is definitely their responsibility, though.
I've got a family friend currently making some dangerously stupid business decisions, where the best-case upside is that they'll make minimum wage or so, and the realistic worse case is bankruptcy and losing everything they've made in the past several years and dealing with the resulting financial fallout, when they have numerous other alternatives available including sticking to their ~$20/hr skilled job with decent career prospects and good long-term security. (I don't object to the risk itself; I object to taking for a max payoff worse than their current position. I'll also add to forstall the usual HN comments that this isn't being done for any other of the reasons that people around here might still make that decision; not a whisper of "being your own boss" or anything like that.)
There's no Silicon Valley whipping horses in this story, this is just plain ol' fashioned "not understanding business", or "not allowing your comprehension of the monetary situation to penetrate down to the actions you choose to make". Is it their fault? Oh, I can make all kinds of excuses for why that's not the case; there's all kinds of personal drama I'm not laying out here driving these decisions that I can deflect with.
But is it their responsibility? Yes, and there's nothing anybody can particularly do about that. Their name on the relevant mortgage. Their name on the relevant papers. Their credit score on the line.
It's your responsibility to make business decisions sensible enough to accomplish your life's goals, and there's just not much that can be done about that.
> There's no Silicon Valley whipping horses in this story
When Patreon says this to the press: "Finally, ‘starving’ and ‘artist’ no longer need to be joined at the hip"
...they're inviting scrutiny.
There's nothing wrong about setting that target, it just is really outlandish. If that motivates them, good for them. But there are millions of starving artists, and a company that makes a serious dent in that problem would have to be enormous.
You're just a lot more focussed on making us all believe it's the persons fault somehow.