3 ms·
"Eat your own dog-food and smell your own farts" is just crass enough that people will actually remember and retell it. Nice work by the author's Comparative Me
by schiffern 7mo ago
"Eat your own dog-food and smell your own farts" is just crass enough that people will actually remember and retell it. Nice work by the author's Comparative Memetics Division.
"Eat your own dog food" == experience your own product.
"Smell your own farts" == experience your entire product, including things that are typically unmentionables like customer service and billing
- derriz 7mo agoThe phrase is striking but doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Companies make dogfood and sell it and expect others (dogs, who aren't known for verbalizing dissatisfaction with their food) to consume it. The producers of dogfood don't really care what it tastes like or how nutritious it is. But I can't imaging a business which involves collecting farts and selling them to others and where sniffing a small quantity of each bottled fart would help improve production processes to ensure a better experience for the customer. And most people are appalled at the smell of others' farts but can tolerate their own, so the "smell your own" test wouldn't really tell you anything.
- whamlastxmas 7mo agoI think the metaphor is less about what you sell and more about the bullshit your customers have to endure to use the product you provide
- schiffern 7mo ago>The producers of dogfood don't really care what it tastes like or how nutritious it is. Bingo. This is why "eat your own dog food" works so well. The best koans and parables include a contradiction, which is a teaching tool not a logic bug. You may think you don't need to eat your own dog food (just like the dog food companies), but actually you should still do it.
- johnisgood 7mo agoI am surprised there are so many people on HN that completely miss the point. I am actually shocked. I am not shocked, however, that there are people who get offended. Getting offended is so 202x.
- mock-possum 7mo agoIt doesn’t work here because “sniff your own farts” is already an idiom that means “believe your own bullshit” - aka delusional. Eating your own dogfood is laudable - sniffing your own farts is not.
- redhale 7mo ago"Eat your own farts." Solved it.
- toraway 7mo agoYeah, my mental image before reading the article was the farts analogy would be a company actually trying out the AI chatbot slopware they added to their line of Bluetooth toothbrushes and hyping to investors as the Next Big Thing or something like that.
- schiffern 7mo agoRight, that's why it's a couplet. Sitting alone like that yes I agree. Smelling Your Own Dog Farts would also be acceptable...