

Fanboy Theory - Cadsby
http://www.marco.org/2012/01/04/fanboy-theory

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loso
I don't agree with this at all. Most of time, when I see charges of
"fanboyism" it is when a person is attacking, or is known for attacking, the
choices of others. For example, "You use Windows over Macs? You must like
viruses". Or "You have an IPhone and not an Android, then you must not care
about being open".

Most rational people will not get mad if someone loves a particular product.
But they will get mad if someone is constantly insulting the product choices
that they have made.

It's fine to love one product and not like another. But don't let
condescension, even if it is subtle, come out while you are discussing it.
That is what brings the blow back.

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kbob
"If you publicly express an opinion that any particular platform is best for a
significant portion of buyers, you’re effectively saying that the people who
chose differently were _wrong_."

That's the fallacy right there. "A is better than B" does not imply "B is
bad".

But a fanboy, who's gotten his identity and sense of self-worth tangled up
with his product choices, has made a tremendous effort to rationalize his
purchase of A to the point where he believes B must be bad. Any evidence that
B is not bad forces him to rationalize the evidence away.

Two things make it easy to slip into fanboyism about phones. The
manufacturers' marketing keeps telling us that owning A will make you one of
the cool kids, encouraging us to derive self-worth from the product. We also
have to rationalize spending money, perhaps more money than we can afford.

Most of us don't get nearly so emotional about, say, shampoo, because we can
easily afford to buy any brand we like or switch brands on a whim.

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landhar
Why wouldn't the same mechanism apply for banks? There are also a big variety
of banks to chose from and people tend to pick one and stick with if for a
while. But you don't see BofA/Chase/YouNameIt fanboys.

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tobtoh
That's an interesting point - it's obviously not 'choices' per se that causes
'fanboyism' ... so what is it? Emotional attachment? I could understand that
with say religious choices, but why do people get so attached to their phones
then?

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angli
The are a couple of possible reasons I see: 1\. Hackers, and the kind people
who really care about this kind of thing want to have the best; if someone
says it isn't the best, even implicitly by saying that they prefer a
competitor, we get defensive.

2\. What companies you choose can be seen as a single pieve of what some
perceive as an ideological struggle. Google the defender of openness, and
Apple the harsh dictator, managing user experience with an iron fist.

3\. People have their phones nearby nearly 24/7. It's possible a subconscious
attachment to it develops in people, though I don't know the psychology of it.

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laconian
Could this article be considered a quine? It both describes fanboyism and IS
fanboysim at the same time!

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pork
No, just ironic.

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FrankBooth
In which a fanboy attempts to justify his fanboyism.

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tobtoh
It's a bit like discussing choices in religious ... if you say your beliefs
are the correct ones, what does that say about my differing beliefs ...

