5 ms·

Allow me to appropriate a quotation from a person who's legacy Apple has had no shame appropriating for marketing: "First they ignore you, then they ridicule yo

tvon 16y ago
Of course you realize how easy it is to apply that quote to completely absurd things, e.g. the Flat Earth Society or pretty much anyone who has reached the ridicule stage. It gets significantly harder as you go along (ignored, ridiculed, fought, victory), and the first two are relatively easy... It's basically a rallying cry for the severe underdog (which I don't think Android is in this case).
- deleted 16y ago
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- fluidcruft 16y ago
  It's also about how power behaves when threatened (which I think does describe Android's relationship to Apple).
rbarooah 16y ago
I seem to recall the iPad being pretty roundly ridiculed as 'just a big iPod touch' no USB, no flash, etc. etc, and I hear plenty of ridicule from the Xoom crowd. What's the rule in this situation? Does the one who ridicules first lose, or the one who ridicules the most?
- fluidcruft 16y ago
  It about how power behaves when threatened. The iPad was a challenge to the dominant netbook model. The Xoom crowd isn't at the top, but android is surging, so they're just noise at this point. Apple's at the top. That's the key difference. Ridiculing Android means that it's progressed to the point that they can't ignore them.
isleyaardvark 16y ago
I always thought that quotation was geared towards innovators, and not merely underdogs who are following an already blazed trail.
gruseom 16y ago
Allow me to appropriate a quotation from a person who's legacy Apple has had no shame appropriating for marketing: "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." While I agree with you that Apple's use of Gandhi in their ads is just about the most shamelessly incongruent marketing ever, Gandhi never said "First they ignore you etc." It comes from a speech made by someone called Nicholas Klein to a garment workers' union circa 1915. Oddly enough, the original Google Books citation I found for this no longer yields the phrase in search. But it appears in this (garbled but recognizable) digitization of the primary source: http://www.archive.org/stream/generalexecuti1919amaluoft/generalexecuti1919amaluoft_djvu.txt http://www.archive.org/stream/generalexecuti1919amaluoft/gen... (I'm experimenting with bringing this up every time I run across the misquote, because I'm curious if the real information will ever catch on.)
- fluidcruft 16y ago
  That's very interesting. It's listed in the disputed section of Gandhi's page on wikiquotes: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi As a thank you, I offer this personal favorite that I like to bring up whenever someone talks about stealing someone's thunder: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/steal-ones-thunder.html http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/steal-ones-thunder.html
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foljs 16y ago
> "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.". This was plainly an exercise in ridicule by Jobs. Errr, actually it's all the competitors that make the ignoring and ridiculing and the fighting. Remember how the original iPod was "lame"? How the iPhone could never succeed? How the iPad is doomed? How Apple is "doing it wrong"? If Jobs is "ridiculing", he is doing it (wisely) AFTER he wins. Oh, and Apple is rarely driven by any "fighting"... They put out the stuff that they want to put out, not X-killers and Y-killers. It's always the competitors that are occupied with making an "iPod killer", "iPhone killer", "iPad killer", all these markets that Apple FIRST opened wide open, one after the other...
Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
I don't disagree, though I would say plenty of things which are ridiculed are done so with good cause and don't get anywhere near the fighting or winning stage. Just because you're being ridiculed doesn't mean you're on the right track, it might just mean that you're genuinely worthy of ridicule. (Note: I'm not suggesting that Android is worthy of ridicule, just saying the fact that someone chooses to ridicule you says little about what might happen next).

tvon 16y ago

Of course you realize how easy it is to apply that quote to completely absurd things, e.g. the Flat Earth Society or pretty much anyone who has reached the ridicule stage. It gets significantly harder as you go along (ignored, ridiculed, fought, victory), and the first two are relatively easy... It's basically a rallying cry for the severe underdog (which I don't think Android is in this case).

deleted 16y ago
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fluidcruft 16y ago
It's also about how power behaves when threatened (which I think does describe Android's relationship to Apple).

rbarooah 16y ago

I seem to recall the iPad being pretty roundly ridiculed as 'just a big iPod touch' no USB, no flash, etc. etc, and I hear plenty of ridicule from the Xoom crowd. What's the rule in this situation? Does the one who ridicules first lose, or the one who ridicules the most?

fluidcruft 16y ago
It about how power behaves when threatened. The iPad was a challenge to the dominant netbook model. The Xoom crowd isn't at the top, but android is surging, so they're just noise at this point. Apple's at the top. That's the key difference. Ridiculing Android means that it's progressed to the point that they can't ignore them.

isleyaardvark 16y ago

I always thought that quotation was geared towards innovators, and not merely underdogs who are following an already blazed trail.

gruseom 16y ago

Allow me to appropriate a quotation from a person who's legacy Apple has had no shame appropriating for marketing: "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." While I agree with you that Apple's use of Gandhi in their ads is just about the most shamelessly incongruent marketing ever, Gandhi never said "First they ignore you etc." It comes from a speech made by someone called Nicholas Klein to a garment workers' union circa 1915. Oddly enough, the original Google Books citation I found for this no longer yields the phrase in search. But it appears in this (garbled but recognizable) digitization of the primary source: http://www.archive.org/stream/generalexecuti1919amaluoft/generalexecuti1919amaluoft_djvu.txt http://www.archive.org/stream/generalexecuti1919amaluoft/gen... (I'm experimenting with bringing this up every time I run across the misquote, because I'm curious if the real information will ever catch on.)

fluidcruft 16y ago
That's very interesting. It's listed in the disputed section of Gandhi's page on wikiquotes: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi As a thank you, I offer this personal favorite that I like to bring up whenever someone talks about stealing someone's thunder: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/steal-ones-thunder.html http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/steal-ones-thunder.html
deleted 16y ago
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foljs 16y ago

> "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.". This was plainly an exercise in ridicule by Jobs. Errr, actually it's all the competitors that make the ignoring and ridiculing and the fighting. Remember how the original iPod was "lame"? How the iPhone could never succeed? How the iPad is doomed? How Apple is "doing it wrong"? If Jobs is "ridiculing", he is doing it (wisely) AFTER he wins. Oh, and Apple is rarely driven by any "fighting"... They put out the stuff that they want to put out, not X-killers and Y-killers. It's always the competitors that are occupied with making an "iPod killer", "iPhone killer", "iPad killer", all these markets that Apple FIRST opened wide open, one after the other...

Tyrannosaurs 16y ago

I don't disagree, though I would say plenty of things which are ridiculed are done so with good cause and don't get anywhere near the fighting or winning stage. Just because you're being ridiculed doesn't mean you're on the right track, it might just mean that you're genuinely worthy of ridicule. (Note: I'm not suggesting that Android is worthy of ridicule, just saying the fact that someone chooses to ridicule you says little about what might happen next).