

The Truth - duked
http://steinarskipsnes.com/the-truth/

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crm416
I have hugely mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I don't see how this
strategy could play out well in the long-run. The founder comes off as
excessively desperate and even untrustworthy. What's weirder is that for him
to have any chance of success with this strategy, it would eventually have to
become apparent that he was lying. Which makes it all seem even sleazier. To
top all of that, there's no way he maintains any long-term positive
relationship with the press.

On the other hand, there is evidently some payoff from this strategy--I had
never heard of this service before this little stunt. Given his actions,
though, I wouldn't use it even if I needed it.

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lutusp
Quotes from the article:

"I want to grow and build a business more than anyone can understand."

"When you want something bad enough, you’re forced to create a path or quit."

To me personally, this appears to be the behavior of a clinical narcissist and
sociopath.

"Love me or hate me. This is the raw me."

Confirmed.

Where are the entrepreneurs who are able to say, "I will succeed only if I
have something to offer." And why? Because it's true -- in the final analysis,
you will only succeed if you have something to offer that people want. No
amount of lying and media manipulation can stand in for actually having a
useful product.

~~~
IanDrake
Honestly, I'm not so sure about that. There are plenty of great products that
never got attention because the devs couldn't find a mass market story behind
it or were unable/unwilling to add some spin.

Frankly, I don't mind the hoax. The media deserves it. I once did a press
release in the form of an article (that I wrote) in which the "writer"
interviewed me as an industry expert. You'd be amazed at how many places ran
that press release as an article with NO alterations, none.

~~~
lutusp
> There are plenty of great products that never got attention because the devs
> couldn't find a mass market story behind it or were unable/unwilling to add
> some spin.

But that agrees with the thesis. A product that "can't find a mass market" is
clearly one that people don't need. By contrast, proven over and over again, a
product that actually fills a need will certainly find a market with very
little ingenuity required by its marketers.

> Frankly, I don't mind the hoax. The media deserves it.

Does the public deserve it? I'm not crazy about this essentially amoral
attitude. It's not as thought the media buy the product and face the
consequences.

A business can't thrive by cheating people and expecting it will all be
forgotten in a fortnight. Not to say that doesn't happen, but I wouldn't want
to rely on misbehavior followed by forgetfulness to sustain a business.

I'm not moralizing -- I'm just saying this way of doing things can't create a
sustainable business.

