April 09, 2006

Keeping bad company

In an article on software patents, Paul Graham writes
Fortunately for startups, big companies are extremely good at denial. If you take the trouble to attack them from an oblique angle, they'll meet you half-way and maneuver to keep you in their blind spot. To sue a startup would mean admitting it was dangerous, and that often means seeing something the big company doesn't want to see.

What intrigued me was the advice in the second sentence: “If you take the trouble to attack them from an oblique angle, they'll meet you half-way and maneuver to keep you in their blind spot.” It reads frighteningly (not for companies: for Christians) like something from The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis, the advice of a senior tempter to a junior one on how to tempt a human soul to destruction. Posted by ronlusk at April 9, 2006 05:34 PM