So, I got to meet Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigstlist at the Mesh Conference last week. And one thing struck me about the interview he did with Mark Evans that is only reinforced by the interview at Wired: Craigslist is an Internet phenomenon by any definition.

But Craig Newmark is no visionary. He’s no guru. And he’s no soothsayer. He’s a guy who lucked into his business, and it continues to succeed in spite of his lackadaisical efforts at starting it and running it.

No, I’m not referring to his anti-spam efforts — they may or may not be successful.

Rather, its a situation where he created a “half-assed” list of things that was happening in the San Francisco area, that ballooned into something much greater than itself. And thanks to some great timing (1996), Craigslist had the benefit of first-mover advantage that no other web concern has really had.

Profitable? Sure, in a way that makes VC’s drool. But classifieds are such a lean operation that it would be mind-boggling how it *couldn’t* be profitable.

I know one thing which drives me crazy is just how utterly slothful Craigslist is about monetizing itself. Jim Buckmaster was asked directly about the issue at Mesh, and basically gave the same answer that he gave for about 40 minutes: “we do what the community wants; if that’s not what the community wants, we won’t do it.”

To me, that strikes me as an enormous dodge, and a passing of the buck, as it were.

I respect the importance for sticking to your values. I understand that’s how Craigslist likes to clothe its business decisions. But not wanting to take advantage of an enormous opportunity to create an efficient business and maximize revenue — especially to do more Good … well, that doesn’t strike me as being wise. It just strikes me as being lazy.

I mean all this talk of having trying to take lessons from “unintended consequences”, an “unstructured approach”, and “getting out of the way when something good happens” — isn’t it as silly as trying to learn something from becoming the Prince of England? Mr. Newmark lucked into his good fortune, and continues to succeed, not because of some sophisticated corporate strategy, but the barest and most intuitive of tactics: listen to your customer.

Mr. Newmark might be a humble and affable gentleman. Mr. Buckmaster certainly seems so.

But let’s be honest — Craig Newmark was lucky as hell to stumble into Craigslist, and thanks to the enormous network effects and branding that’s generated out of it, it continues to grow into the behemoth it is today. In spite of what Craig and Jim do.