

The Genius ISMs - tomlemon
http://meta.genius.com/Genius-the-genius-isms-annotated

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thathonkey
A lot of this stuff is kind of... uh... drivel? Eg. sure, tons of companies
would like to hire "only A players" But that isn't realistic. In my opinion,
Genius is not as compelling of a product to work on as they seem to think.
They got big basically via appropriating rap culture. The bit about your job
title not mattering because ultimately the success of Genius depends on you is
nice on the surface but instantly problematic after you start to think about
it a little bit.

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thrush
> In my opinion, Genius is not as compelling of a product to work on as they
> seem to think.

I guess it could be helpful to define what the product exactly is. Genius is a
high traffic transactional site, so they probably have the same problems that
any large site has. They're also incredibly text heavy, and I probably
wouldn't being going too far if I said that they are striving to eventually
have every piece of written text available. Looking at these two qualities
alone, I feel that there is enough going on to make their product compelling
to virtually any person that has done software engineering, applied
statistics, machine learning, or read a book.

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thathonkey
It started as a way of annotating rap lyrics to explain the content to the
uninitiated. Unfortunately, many of these annotations are flat-out wrong (not
to mention many of the subject matters are more or less open to
interpretation). So right off the bat, the whole notion of calling the
platform "Genius" is highly dubious, I feel. Not sure why they think that they
can easily expand out into other mediums which will require more, not less,
intense analytical thought, intimate knowledge about the subject, etc. as
opposed to just being knowledgable about what mostly amounts to slang.

(Stackexchange would make a better Genius.com)

So the original product has now morphed into some sort of "global" annotation
system for any kind of text (including literature, law, tech). I just feel
like they will have a hard time attracting true experts in these subjects.

I guess I'm also just not a fan of the site's overall aesthetic. The design is
very dark and cluttered. Not very inviting.

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Adrock
This annotation:

[http://meta.genius.com/4127010](http://meta.genius.com/4127010)

That picture of Bruges is from Seeing Like a State[1], which should be
required reading for all managers.

[1]
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300078153/ref=as_li_tl?ie=...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300078153/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0300078153&linkCode=as2&tag=adereth-20&linkId=PDXRKLY5YPZHM2M2)

~~~
tomlemon
Slash for all HUMANS! it's basically the best book ever – i'll add a link in
to the annotation..

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thrush
I'm impressed by the attention to detail. I also really like the "Run into the
Spike" point, especially the line, "Want to chill and watch TV? Go to a gym-
esque place instead." Having effective distractions is a great strategy. On a
similar note, my hockey coach in high school used to tell us to stretch if we
we're watching TV. Even if you are "chilling", maybe there's a way to utilize
that chill time in a positive way.

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jdpedrie
A lot of this is inspired by Quicken Loans' Isms. Both companies are at least
partly owned by Dan Gilbert. [http://www.quickenloans.com/press-room/fast-
facts/our-isms/](http://www.quickenloans.com/press-room/fast-facts/our-isms/)

