3 ms·

And the "Team" page couldn't be more cliche-laden either.. lots of dogs and of course, "You should also know that we like dogs, office mini-golf, and breakfast

And the "Team" page couldn't be more cliche-laden either.. lots of dogs and of course, "You should also know that we like dogs, office mini-golf, and breakfast burritos." WTH it's hilarious that the once-harmless-banal-mild-infantilism of odd underdog side projects and garage up-starts has now infested every executive's/investor's mind such that they feel apparent competetive pressure to ensure a quip like the above will be "obligatorily" present. The only reason this sort of stuff was at first inspiring, "human touch", or exhilarating was because it contrasted so starkly with mainstream biz heuristics. No longer, so might as well all drop the pretend bouncy-castle-playground-mentality right now.

jstarfish 9y ago
I'm one of those that abhors the Playskoolization of professional services (I don't fit in to that culture myself), don't buy into marketing and am not easily moved, but having sat through a ton of sales meetings from vendors that take both the infantile as well as the more traditional "adult" approaches-- the latter always comes across as cold and sterile, like we're just one more sale they need to make quota. Product viability being equivalent, the decision comes down to "do I want to do business with some hipsters and their dogs, or do I want to do business with the Borg and their lawyers?" The human approach still works.
- dualogy 9y ago
  I get that (although probably locale-dependent: biz people in my corner of the world rarely perceive each others as "borgs" and frankly also have little reason to =) but my musing here was more towards the inevitable pendulum swing that turns the whole "hipsters-with-dogs" aesthetic is turning into tomorrow's "lame sterile" (ie 2nd-hand, motion-performing) "borgs". =)
rdiddly 9y ago
I like how this is stuff I "should know." Like something dire might happen if I don't know up front that I'm entering into a collaboration with people who prefer certain pets and food! Although hold on, it dawns on me that they might be trying to say these are things in the actual workplace, i.e. it's loud and distracting and smells like burrito farts and (most likely unwashed) dogs. If that's the case, I actually do appreciate knowing up front. But even here they're being super vague. "I like dogs" is different from "I bring my dog to work." Is it the one or the other? Even if I wanted to bring my own dog to work, I still have no idea if that's okay. Don't make people guess!

jstarfish 9y ago

I'm one of those that abhors the Playskoolization of professional services (I don't fit in to that culture myself), don't buy into marketing and am not easily moved, but having sat through a ton of sales meetings from vendors that take both the infantile as well as the more traditional "adult" approaches-- the latter always comes across as cold and sterile, like we're just one more sale they need to make quota. Product viability being equivalent, the decision comes down to "do I want to do business with some hipsters and their dogs, or do I want to do business with the Borg and their lawyers?" The human approach still works.

dualogy 9y ago
I get that (although probably locale-dependent: biz people in my corner of the world rarely perceive each others as "borgs" and frankly also have little reason to =) but my musing here was more towards the inevitable pendulum swing that turns the whole "hipsters-with-dogs" aesthetic is turning into tomorrow's "lame sterile" (ie 2nd-hand, motion-performing) "borgs". =)

rdiddly 9y ago

I like how this is stuff I "should know." Like something dire might happen if I don't know up front that I'm entering into a collaboration with people who prefer certain pets and food! Although hold on, it dawns on me that they might be trying to say these are things in the actual workplace, i.e. it's loud and distracting and smells like burrito farts and (most likely unwashed) dogs. If that's the case, I actually do appreciate knowing up front. But even here they're being super vague. "I like dogs" is different from "I bring my dog to work." Is it the one or the other? Even if I wanted to bring my own dog to work, I still have no idea if that's okay. Don't make people guess!