

In Defense of Marketing, Hacking, and Programming - thisisparker
http://emilydelmont.svbtle.com/in-defense-of-marketing-hacking-and-programming

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seizethecheese
What a confusing way to ostensibly relieve confusion! Every usage of the term
"growth hacker" that I've encountered doesn't seem to imply that it means
anything other than someone who uses quick and dirty tactics to spur rapid
growth.

This seems more defensive than anything. I've noticed quite a few articles
lately from non-technical workers in the tech industry along the same vein.
I've worked as a non-technical worker at a startup before, so I understand the
need to justify one's role.

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xmonkee
That article took way to long to say, "Don't call me a hacker because words
can only mean one thing".

Edit: Also, this totally happened

>“No, I’m not. I don’t think scale, hiring and leadership coaching is
something one can hack into. Neither do I think that market entry, customer
engagement and creative storytelling is solved by an algorithm. Growth is too
vague. We all work in it. Adding the word ‘hacking’ does a disservice not to
just itself, but to marketing and software development, too.”

>We both grinned and laughed. He responded in agreement, “Fair points. I’m a
programmer. I agree, it’s a shitty title. Definitely not indicative of the
work.”

~~~
afarrell
Words can have multiple meanings, but when a word can describe any situation,
it carries no more information than the word "thing".

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xmonkee
But it's bound to happen. Waging war against common usage is so futile.

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forgottenpass
"Hacking" just sounds cool, even though it has little to no place at a tech
startup. It's just a way to apply cachet to something less appealing on it's
own. One of the earliest and biggest culprits is a book I once read because it
used the word "Hacker" to purport it was a very different kind of book than it
turned out to be.

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hagbardgroup
Sounds like you got hacked by a bookhacker using a classic titlehack which
hacked your decisionhacking process. Even though you didn't like the book, you
still got acquihacked as a customer thanks to the author's brilliant title
optimization strategy.

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the_watcher
Good marketing and "growth hacks" aren't the same. Growth hacks can complement
good marketing, though, by helping the marketing reach an audience. The
problem is that "growth hacker" has become an annoyingly ambiguous term used
by anyone who wants to try and bolt hacker onto their title without actually
hacking anything. Growth hacks, however, are still pretty useful.

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omarhegazy
Agreed. I don't think the author ever said hacking was an inferior or
unreasonable tactic -- she never said clever kitchen extensions were _bad_.
She just wanted people to be able to separate and properly judge what is a
clever kitchen extension and what is proper house foundation, and know when to
use each.

However, I don't agree that hacks are inherently short-term only. It's
possible, although very difficult, to come across a quick, easy decision that
will improve your long-term as well as your short-term.

Like what Twitter did at SXSW 2007. They set up 2 huge 60 inch plasma TVs in
conference hallways -- that one small, quick, dirty easy decision caused them
to explode in popularity.

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afarrell
It seems like she said that growth hacking wasn't a thing that exists. I
suspect that if asked, she would with you that it does exist as an action but
that as a title it is nonsensical. A startup's marketing can't be made of
hacks for the same reason that if a programmer spends all of her time hacking,
she'll end up with an incoherent mess of spaghetti instead of a solid
foundation to build more of a business on.

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josephschmoe
svbtle really needs to buy a vowel.

