5 ms·

> finding products they love That phrase is a dead giveaway that a very silly group of people have started dominating the conversation at a given company. I do

by flkiwi 1y ago

> finding products they love That phrase is a dead giveaway that a very silly group of people have started dominating the conversation at a given company. I don't "love" a product. I certainly don't "love" a product I'm having to resort to ChatGPT to figure out my potential relationship with. At best, I "love" having a solution to a problem that I want to spend as little time and money solving as possible, and even then it's more of a satisfactorily productive comradeship. God this is exhausting.

observationist 1y ago
It means the enshittification is reaching full acceleration. The MBAs have taken over. It'll be a constant battle between monetization and research, and a continual skewing of research and development as unnecessary expenses, followed by a full-on torching of the reputation in return for fast cash now and trading on vibes thereafter, while the rest of the world moves on. Sama wants to speedrun the Apple arc, it looks like.
- lomase 1y ago
  The MBAs have taken over a place that calls itself HackerNews. Imagine if the company has AI in its name.
  - spwa4 1y ago
    This is a brilliant idea. I'm going to mail 99999999 people about my new MBAI degree offering! For only $6666 you too can become part of the new Mega Banana Annihilation Infantry – the secret task force fighting rogue potassium. Success guaranteed! Buy now!
- flkiwi 1y ago
  And investors will be genuinely surprised when the whole thing falls apart in 36 months and the still-very-rich founder spends the next 16 years giving uncomfortably veiny public talks about some uncomfortably sociopathic thing he’s become fascinated with and everyone tries to pretend is totally normal.
- listenallyall 1y ago
  It doesnt take an MBA to figure out that selling stuff, or facilitating the sale of stuff, has value. The techies are the ones who built it, the whole "MBA" idea is a coping mechanism to deflect from your own (assuming you're some kind of techie/programmer) participation.
ryandrake 1y ago
Marketers are obsessed with this idea that people want some kind of "relationship" with them. As if I wake up in the morning, hoping to interact with brands and have experiences around them. I'm not going to follow McDonalds. I'm not going to subscribe to the McDonalds E-mail newsletter. I'm not going to read posts on Twitter from the official McDonalds social media editor. I'm not looking for relevant McDonalds products. I'm not even fucking thinking about you, McDonalds. That goes for all brands, not just them. I wish companies could just back off, offer products, take my money when I buy them, and butt out of my life otherwise.
- jowea 1y ago
  Some people do though
- flkiwi 1y ago
  I’ve been in this long-running battle with a large non-US appliance maker about their app. I live in a humid place and find notifications that a load is finished in the washer so I can move it quickly to the dryer very useful. Unfortunately this company has decided to layer on at least one daily notification reminding me to think about all the value their product can bring me. This notification is not strictly marketing, because there’s no buy action anywhere, but it is most certainly the sort of “pay attention to meeeee” whine you commonly see in the most insecure boys. The thing is that they seem absolutely BAFFLED that anyone wouldn’t want these messages. They cannot conceive that a consumer doesn’t give a shit about their washer/dryer except as a purely functional device. They want to be part of the family, the sort of thing where I think “Gosh I love my wife. Gosh I love my child. Gosh I love my dog. God damn I love my washing machine.” They genuinely believe people think like this. It’s sad and hilarious at the same time.
  - EGreg 1y ago
    I love… lamp. I love lamp!
  - abakker 1y ago
    As an aside, I think you could get a smart plug that would support a 15 amp load that could give you a notification if the load went away. Might not be perfect, but just reading about having a relationship with a washing machine in a theoretical, second-party kind of sense makes me angry :)
cush 1y ago
I think most people can identify a few products they love
- michaelt 1y ago
  If you have a sufficiently broad definition of 'product', then yes. Millions of people are passionate about brands like the "Dallas Cowboys" and "Star Wars" and will dress up in costumes and go to events with like-minded people. But for normal products, like USB headsets? Nobody's dressing up as the Jabra 20 Stereo USB-C Headset to go to the big Jabra Convention.
  - cush 1y ago
    > If you have a sufficiently broad definition of 'product', then yes.... people are passionate about brands like the "Dallas Cowboys" and "Star Wars".... Some people are passionate about coffee, others knitting. I'm not sure it's a broad definition of product you need, but more like a broader definition of people. They probably don't all fit into your sports nerd bubble. Most people are passionate about something.
7thpower 1y ago
Johnny is frowning right now.
b_e_n_t_o_n 1y ago
It's true only for a select few products that are actually elite. Like Apple or Dyson.
- hatthew 1y ago
  Tangent to your point, but I think Dyson is generally considered to be overpriced for what it is. Shark and Kenmore are just as good by most metrics and are less expensive, whereas if you want reliable products then you get Miele or Sebo. Dyson's one selling point is that they're typically close to or on the cutting edge of technology, so they're the best if you value noise and size more than price and reliability.
- trenchpilgrim 1y ago
  I have a product I love - it's a barbecue sauce. I buy it from a fella in Texas who ships the bottles in boxes he clearly packs himself (often the bottles have personal thank you notes with my name written on them in sharpie.) Wouldn't call it "elite"
  - b_e_n_t_o_n 1y ago
    That sounds pretty elite to me. I didn't mean it as elitist.
abakker 1y ago
I agree...but I also think it's a slow path to monetize OpenAI if they don't support some kind of channel to get paid by the sell-side. At least they offer a subscription and didn't jump to this as the only option. I'm optimistic that a premium tier can exist that avoids this, but we'll see. The reality is that they need the money.
- michaelt 1y ago
  > it's a slow path to monetize OpenAI if they don't support some kind of channel to get paid by the sell-side. Seems like an express route to irrelevance, to me. If I wanted AI-generated shill reviews, written without laying eyes on the product, hoping to get me to click on an affiliate link? I'd go to Google.
hatthew 1y ago
I have brands/products I love, but I love them because I trust them, and typically my trust of something is inversely correlated with seeing mainstream marketing for it.
rapind 1y ago
Blame Apple, I think they started it decades ago. And yes some people really do love their products.
- xoxxala 1y ago
  I think it goes back way farther than that. Look at car ads from the 1950s and 60s, for example. They give off that romantic vibe.
  - rapind 1y ago
    No doubt. I was thinking Volkswagen, but I'm not sure if that was about love so much as just evoking emotion and humour with design. Apple is the earliest I can relate to at least. My first 13" Mackbook Air was perfect. You definitely see people who cherish their car (Ferris Bueller Ferrari comes to mind).
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
rogerthis 1y ago
Yeah, miss good ol' mom, gradma talk: you (should) love people; things you like them.
CMay 1y ago
I absolutely know people who love companies and products. Like LOVE them, they will be put into tears like a child at Christmas, but they're adults. They grew up with them or their family members died and those companies or products bring back those memories. They played their favorite game while eating that food, etc. You never know. I'm not sure I've ever loved a company exactly, but I've really really liked a product, or sometimes just a type of food. If I like a certain food enough and only a certain company sells it, some of that feeling relates with the company too. Like the company cheers you up, BECAUSE they sell it. You can see how that might be valuable in spreading appeal for the company and helping preserve the thing you enjoy, so it has social/natural selection value. I think when companies refer to this, they really are referring to real people, it's just aspirational that other people could feel that way if they let themselves. Most people won't.

by flkiwi 1y ago

observationist 1y ago

It means the enshittification is reaching full acceleration. The MBAs have taken over. It'll be a constant battle between monetization and research, and a continual skewing of research and development as unnecessary expenses, followed by a full-on torching of the reputation in return for fast cash now and trading on vibes thereafter, while the rest of the world moves on. Sama wants to speedrun the Apple arc, it looks like.

lomase 1y ago
The MBAs have taken over a place that calls itself HackerNews. Imagine if the company has AI in its name.
- spwa4 1y ago
  This is a brilliant idea. I'm going to mail 99999999 people about my new MBAI degree offering! For only $6666 you too can become part of the new Mega Banana Annihilation Infantry – the secret task force fighting rogue potassium. Success guaranteed! Buy now!
flkiwi 1y ago
And investors will be genuinely surprised when the whole thing falls apart in 36 months and the still-very-rich founder spends the next 16 years giving uncomfortably veiny public talks about some uncomfortably sociopathic thing he’s become fascinated with and everyone tries to pretend is totally normal.
listenallyall 1y ago
It doesnt take an MBA to figure out that selling stuff, or facilitating the sale of stuff, has value. The techies are the ones who built it, the whole "MBA" idea is a coping mechanism to deflect from your own (assuming you're some kind of techie/programmer) participation.

ryandrake 1y ago

Marketers are obsessed with this idea that people want some kind of "relationship" with them. As if I wake up in the morning, hoping to interact with brands and have experiences around them. I'm not going to follow McDonalds. I'm not going to subscribe to the McDonalds E-mail newsletter. I'm not going to read posts on Twitter from the official McDonalds social media editor. I'm not looking for relevant McDonalds products. I'm not even fucking thinking about you, McDonalds. That goes for all brands, not just them. I wish companies could just back off, offer products, take my money when I buy them, and butt out of my life otherwise.

jowea 1y ago
Some people do though
flkiwi 1y ago
I’ve been in this long-running battle with a large non-US appliance maker about their app. I live in a humid place and find notifications that a load is finished in the washer so I can move it quickly to the dryer very useful. Unfortunately this company has decided to layer on at least one daily notification reminding me to think about all the value their product can bring me. This notification is not strictly marketing, because there’s no buy action anywhere, but it is most certainly the sort of “pay attention to meeeee” whine you commonly see in the most insecure boys. The thing is that they seem absolutely BAFFLED that anyone wouldn’t want these messages. They cannot conceive that a consumer doesn’t give a shit about their washer/dryer except as a purely functional device. They want to be part of the family, the sort of thing where I think “Gosh I love my wife. Gosh I love my child. Gosh I love my dog. God damn I love my washing machine.” They genuinely believe people think like this. It’s sad and hilarious at the same time.
- EGreg 1y ago
  I love… lamp. I love lamp!
- abakker 1y ago
  As an aside, I think you could get a smart plug that would support a 15 amp load that could give you a notification if the load went away. Might not be perfect, but just reading about having a relationship with a washing machine in a theoretical, second-party kind of sense makes me angry :)

cush 1y ago

I think most people can identify a few products they love

michaelt 1y ago
If you have a sufficiently broad definition of 'product', then yes. Millions of people are passionate about brands like the "Dallas Cowboys" and "Star Wars" and will dress up in costumes and go to events with like-minded people. But for normal products, like USB headsets? Nobody's dressing up as the Jabra 20 Stereo USB-C Headset to go to the big Jabra Convention.
- cush 1y ago
  > If you have a sufficiently broad definition of 'product', then yes.... people are passionate about brands like the "Dallas Cowboys" and "Star Wars".... Some people are passionate about coffee, others knitting. I'm not sure it's a broad definition of product you need, but more like a broader definition of people. They probably don't all fit into your sports nerd bubble. Most people are passionate about something.

7thpower 1y ago

Johnny is frowning right now.

b_e_n_t_o_n 1y ago

It's true only for a select few products that are actually elite. Like Apple or Dyson.

hatthew 1y ago
Tangent to your point, but I think Dyson is generally considered to be overpriced for what it is. Shark and Kenmore are just as good by most metrics and are less expensive, whereas if you want reliable products then you get Miele or Sebo. Dyson's one selling point is that they're typically close to or on the cutting edge of technology, so they're the best if you value noise and size more than price and reliability.
trenchpilgrim 1y ago
I have a product I love - it's a barbecue sauce. I buy it from a fella in Texas who ships the bottles in boxes he clearly packs himself (often the bottles have personal thank you notes with my name written on them in sharpie.) Wouldn't call it "elite"
- b_e_n_t_o_n 1y ago
  That sounds pretty elite to me. I didn't mean it as elitist.

abakker 1y ago

I agree...but I also think it's a slow path to monetize OpenAI if they don't support some kind of channel to get paid by the sell-side. At least they offer a subscription and didn't jump to this as the only option. I'm optimistic that a premium tier can exist that avoids this, but we'll see. The reality is that they need the money.

michaelt 1y ago
> it's a slow path to monetize OpenAI if they don't support some kind of channel to get paid by the sell-side. Seems like an express route to irrelevance, to me. If I wanted AI-generated shill reviews, written without laying eyes on the product, hoping to get me to click on an affiliate link? I'd go to Google.

hatthew 1y ago

I have brands/products I love, but I love them because I trust them, and typically my trust of something is inversely correlated with seeing mainstream marketing for it.

rapind 1y ago

Blame Apple, I think they started it decades ago. And yes some people really do love their products.

xoxxala 1y ago
I think it goes back way farther than that. Look at car ads from the 1950s and 60s, for example. They give off that romantic vibe.
- rapind 1y ago
  No doubt. I was thinking Volkswagen, but I'm not sure if that was about love so much as just evoking emotion and humour with design. Apple is the earliest I can relate to at least. My first 13" Mackbook Air was perfect. You definitely see people who cherish their car (Ferris Bueller Ferrari comes to mind).
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

rogerthis 1y ago

Yeah, miss good ol' mom, gradma talk: you (should) love people; things you like them.

CMay 1y ago

I absolutely know people who love companies and products. Like LOVE them, they will be put into tears like a child at Christmas, but they're adults. They grew up with them or their family members died and those companies or products bring back those memories. They played their favorite game while eating that food, etc. You never know. I'm not sure I've ever loved a company exactly, but I've really really liked a product, or sometimes just a type of food. If I like a certain food enough and only a certain company sells it, some of that feeling relates with the company too. Like the company cheers you up, BECAUSE they sell it. You can see how that might be valuable in spreading appeal for the company and helping preserve the thing you enjoy, so it has social/natural selection value. I think when companies refer to this, they really are referring to real people, it's just aspirational that other people could feel that way if they let themselves. Most people won't.