I think it's especially telling that he defaults to deception in a case where the more honest, transparent, and honorable action is both obvious and more personally beneficial to everyone involved.
Using advertising and pre sales contacts to determine demand and design a product is quite reasonable (and standard; the innovation is that self-service AdWords makes it a command-line process vs. a formal effort), but the respondents are your first, best, and potentially most loyal customers, so screwing them even a little right off the bat is bad for a lot of reasons.
When the game theoretic amoral behavior and the "conventional, moral" behavior tend to converge, it's probably the correct choice.
Using advertising and pre sales contacts to determine demand and design a product is quite reasonable (and standard; the innovation is that self-service AdWords makes it a command-line process vs. a formal effort), but the respondents are your first, best, and potentially most loyal customers, so screwing them even a little right off the bat is bad for a lot of reasons.
When the game theoretic amoral behavior and the "conventional, moral" behavior tend to converge, it's probably the correct choice.