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One thing this blog post highlights strongly, albeit accidentally, is that if you are going to have a personality it is important to have the right personality
by dhimes 15y ago
One thing this blog post highlights strongly, albeit accidentally, is that if you are going to have a personality it is important to have the right personality for your market. Having the wrong personality can set you back in ways ranging from not being taken seriously- and therefore having a greater hill to climb, to being offensive- and therefore being locked out of your market/audience.
This blog post reads closer to something that I expect to see on a joke or casual chat forum than something I expect to see on a VC's blog.
Having said that, I also think the message is spot-on. In particular, I thought the advice under "How not be boring" was clear, simple, and compelling.
- brlewis 15y agoI think you're right that the wrong personality can set you back, but disagree that this post is an illustration of it. Another of Fred's posts a few days also had spot-on advice relevant to the HN community. It never made it to the front page: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3025690 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3025690 This one being so much more successful illustrates one of three things: (1) the personality helped or (2) people think the content in this post is more interesting than that one was or (3) pg fixed the problem that makes it harder for items to reach the front page if they're submitted too early in the morning Pacific time.
- dhimes 15y agoThe reason it illustrated the hazards of a "wrong personality" not because it harmed Fred's particular brand, but because it was so startling that the reader can immediately see how having a "wrong personality" can have a lasting impact. This isn't a problem for Fred (except possibly for new readers), but could be for someone who is still trying to build his brand. In other words, if this were the personality of the blog (or, say, if Zed Shaw's online personality were the personality of the blog), online readers would have a different impression of Fred Wilson the VC. This one being so much more successful Only if the sole purpose of the blog was to get attention and create discussion as to the writing style of the blog.
- brlewis 15y agoI did choose to measure success by upvotes. Are you saying that people are upvoting this article because of discussion as to the writing style?
- dhimes 15y agoNo. But I would venture that I wouldn't necessarily choose to measure the success of a blog by its upvotes on HN. Especially when, as it was when I first commented, that the majority of comments were about the writing style and were negative.
- jethroalias97 15y agoPersonality will make more people love you, but will also make more people hate you. However, both drive page views and attention.