

Lets Band Together and Stop the Hype Cycle - meterplech
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/19/bloggers-let%e2%80%99s-band-together-and-stop-the-hype-cycle/

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russell
Silly girl! Marketeers stop hyping. Bloggers stop blogging. Troll stop
tolling. No more misleading stories driving up eyeballs. Everybody sitting
back and being thoughtful? A century ago William Randolph Hearst sold us a
war. I dont think anything has changed.

~~~
mechanical_fish
A reasonable argument: The hype cycle is a law of human nature.

Another possibility is that the hype cycle is _deliberately designed_. That's
also kind of what you are saying: If the hype cycle didn't exist, tech
reporters or venture capitalists would probably have invented it.

To a physicist the hype cycle looks like a very slightly underdamped
oscillator. [1] It oscillates a bit... but only for one or two cycles. And the
pain caused by the "Trough of Disillusionment" is quite possibly outweighed by
the utility of that initial steep slope. Or by the risk that, if you try to
design the _perfectly_ damped hype cycle, you will err on the side of caution
and design an _overdamped_ hype cycle, which is a disaster.

(To translate that last bit out of Physicist: If you try to design a product
that is perfectly suited to its intended task, perfectly scalable -- not too
little or too much -- and has perfect, clear documentation so that everyone
understands _exactly_ what it is for and what it is not for... there's a good
chance that you will design something that is ever-so-slightly wrong for the
market, and everyone will _know_ that it is wrong (thanks to your complete
honesty and clarity) and it will take a _little_ too long to fix (because it's
so thoroughly overengineered)... and by the time you get it fixed the quick-
and-dirty hack will have stolen your mindshare and your market. Or you'll just
run out of money _before_ getting it fixed.)

\---

[1] Of course, as Bruce Sterling once pointed out, the cycle is incomplete.
Nobody ever draws the _right_ half of the curve, which includes
"obsolescence", "death", "consignment to collectors on eBay", and "rebirth as
a cool, retro fashion accessory".

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DarkShikari
_Techcrunch_ posting about stopping the hype cycle?

 _Really_?

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swombat
TechCrunch need a new copy editor.

From run-on sentences to misplaced prepositions, this piece has it all:

 __But_ it’s not all kumbaya here. _And_ one of the most destructive things
about Silicon Valley is the hype cycle. _And_ judging by the fact that some
bloggers pronounced Twitter “done” the same week the company was featured on
Oprah, it’s clear that hype cycle has spun ludicrously out of control._

 _I’m sure you’ve seen the graphs. If not, it’s to the left._

 _It starts to attain huge growth and buzz._ >> urgh, loose English ftl!

 _He was built up as the young, shoe-less God of the Internet that the press
brutally tore him down once the crash changed the viability of his second
company, Loudcloud’s, business._ >> my eyes!

Unfortunately (and I'm not trying to be harsh), it seems to me that the
thinking behind this article is as loose as the writing.

~~~
sgrove
What, exactly, should the hn community do about this? Should we all email
Arrington and kindly notify him?

I simply don't read their articles. There hasn't been a good one that I can
remember, even barring poor writing skills.

It's a game of capitalism, if you want them to improve, stop visiting their
blog until they do. Until they lose traffic because of it, there's no impetus
to improve.

~~~
Ardit20
Interesting, what about the suggestion that the bigger the audience the better
the content?

