4 ms·

How did priceonomics become a thing.. this seems like a clickbait site for the more intellectual crowd, less trashy than say buzzfeed, but ultimately not really

How did priceonomics become a thing.. this seems like a clickbait site for the more intellectual crowd, less trashy than say buzzfeed, but ultimately not really delivering much in the way of genuine insight. It probably doesn't hurt that the name recalls "freakonomics", another brand which, while occasionally interesting, is far past its pull date as well..

bgun 10y ago
Please refrain from labeling any article with a less-than-literal headline as "clickbait". I feel this lies somewhere between "avoid gratuitous negativity" and "complaining that a submission is inappropriate" guidelines; maybe I'm just tired of seeing the word slung at any headline even remotely designed to engage its audience.
jameslk 10y ago
I believe Priceonomics went through YC, so I assume that's partially why it pops up on HN so frequently. From my understanding they started out as more of a data-driven guide for pricing things but seemed to have pivoted to being another media company.
tokensimian 10y ago
They tell their own story pretty well. Informative and interesting, pretty decent advice in there. Of course, no secret sauce, but that's overblown anyhow. I find their articles very interesting, almost every time. Really high signal to noise, even if their content isn't always about weighty matters. I rather liked this one about breakfast, for instance: it taught me a lot about the historical development of breakfast. Anyhow, not to tout these guys too much, but I do respect them for what they've done. http://priceonomics.com/the-content-marketing-handbook/ http://priceonomics.com/the-content-marketing-handbook/
ulrikrasmussen 10y ago
What would you categorize as "genuine insight", then? I found the article pretty good, well written, and it actually taught something about the history of cereals in America that I didn't know (the fact that Kellogg had purely moral reasons for inventing what later evolved into the sugary Kellogg's that we know today was pretty interesting!) Articles that can be called "clickbait" are generally not very well written, misrepresents information, and leave you with a feeling of not getting what the headline promised. That is not the case here, at all.

bgun 10y ago

Please refrain from labeling any article with a less-than-literal headline as "clickbait". I feel this lies somewhere between "avoid gratuitous negativity" and "complaining that a submission is inappropriate" guidelines; maybe I'm just tired of seeing the word slung at any headline even remotely designed to engage its audience.

jameslk 10y ago

I believe Priceonomics went through YC, so I assume that's partially why it pops up on HN so frequently. From my understanding they started out as more of a data-driven guide for pricing things but seemed to have pivoted to being another media company.

tokensimian 10y ago

They tell their own story pretty well. Informative and interesting, pretty decent advice in there. Of course, no secret sauce, but that's overblown anyhow. I find their articles very interesting, almost every time. Really high signal to noise, even if their content isn't always about weighty matters. I rather liked this one about breakfast, for instance: it taught me a lot about the historical development of breakfast. Anyhow, not to tout these guys too much, but I do respect them for what they've done. http://priceonomics.com/the-content-marketing-handbook/ http://priceonomics.com/the-content-marketing-handbook/

ulrikrasmussen 10y ago

What would you categorize as "genuine insight", then? I found the article pretty good, well written, and it actually taught something about the history of cereals in America that I didn't know (the fact that Kellogg had purely moral reasons for inventing what later evolved into the sugary Kellogg's that we know today was pretty interesting!) Articles that can be called "clickbait" are generally not very well written, misrepresents information, and leave you with a feeling of not getting what the headline promised. That is not the case here, at all.