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> But I don't apologize for that, nor do I regret it. Okay. I respect this tremendously, but... > When I mention this, and when I call out the CEO specificall

> But I don't apologize for that, nor do I regret it. Okay. I respect this tremendously, but... > When I mention this, and when I call out the CEO specifically, people call me arrogant, young, naive, and stupid. ...then you've got to be ready for this. You're going to get it your whole life if you keep acting the way you're acting. It upsets people. They think you're acting out of your place, and you haven't put in your hours and earned your stripes and who the hell does this kid think he is? I went through a similar thing when I was younger and went into business. Here's one of my favorite quotes, it's by Bertrand Russel: "Conventional people are roused to fury by departures from convention, largely because they regard such departures as a criticism of themselves." Okay, so step 1 - you've got to be willing to accept that you're going to provoke reactions like this if you keep acting as you've been acting, questioning authority and the way things are in a very confrontational way. And when people confront you, they won't fight fair and fight your arguments, they'll pull anything out of the hat they can to discredit you or get under your skin. It's going to happen more often rather than less as you go forwards. So if you can accept it, and keep on going, you can do some things. So I support you as someone who dropped out of high school and went into business quite young, and got called all sorts of nasty things too, and I admire you character. With that said: > Fixing AA.com would be ridiculously cheap and simple... This is where you go wrong. No, it probably wouldn't. You can get all the mileage you're currently getting, and a lot more credibility by changing that statement to, "Hell, maybe there'd be a lot of bureaucracy to cut through to fix AA.com and it'd cost some coin, but it's possible and it needs to be done." --> Lots more credibility. Doesn't lose much bite. When in doubt, fake the modesty. You'll get much more mileage out of life. Later you might learn that some things are more complicated than they initially appear, but you're going to get better mileage anyway if you sympathize with the difficulties people are likely to face trying to make change. And if you're a little extra nice and sympathetic, and it really would be cheap and easy, then your suggestions sound even more palatable. So - I'm with you, and keep on trucking man. Maybe add a touch of sympathizing with difficulties people face (guess/fake it if you can't see any potential difficulties) and your critique is much more likely to be received well.

dannyr 17y ago
I agree with lionhearted about earning your stripes. What have you done in the past that should make AA.com take your redesign seriously? There are a number of web entrepreneurs/hackers that I pay attention to. Some are young, some are old but I know they have paid their dues and earned their stripes.
nir 17y ago
I think bringing Bertrand Russel into this is going a bit far. People aren't upset because Dustin's ideas shatter their stagnant world view, but because he presents them as having far more importance than they really do. AA is not doing as badly as it does because its homepage is messy. It used to be that software was as close as you get to meritocracy. It seems that the web, and especially "web 2.0", changed that. We now have people like Scoble or Arrington who gain their status by pouring their energy not into building great stuff, but into ceaselessly promoting themselves. Many of us see this as crass and pushy.
- mrshoe 17y ago
  Exactly. No one is mad about his wild unconventionality. He's not even being unconventional. He's just telling AA to make their site look more web2.0-y. The criticism here is of Dustin's incredible arrogance in calling everyone at AA completely incompetent (which is patently untrue), and in his eagerness to make it a public controversy in order to shine the spotlight on himself. His web site is a virtual shrine to himself. Everyone knows that creating controversy draws public attention. Just check every 37signals talk or blog post. It works. All you have to do is vehemently argue that the experts are morons and that you know better, and people will pay attention. Some people don't appreciate the deliberate use of controversy to gain attention, though. That's the issue at hand.
- sineltor 17y ago
  AA is not doing as badly as it does because its homepage is messy. The user’s experience is always more important than you think it is. First impressions are always more important than they should be. In this case, I genuinely believe that AA will live or die based on the experience their customers have. Fixing their homepage is the start of a systematic change they need to make. However, if they don’t regain their customer-experience focus, I think it will doom them.

dannyr 17y ago

I agree with lionhearted about earning your stripes. What have you done in the past that should make AA.com take your redesign seriously? There are a number of web entrepreneurs/hackers that I pay attention to. Some are young, some are old but I know they have paid their dues and earned their stripes.

nir 17y ago

I think bringing Bertrand Russel into this is going a bit far. People aren't upset because Dustin's ideas shatter their stagnant world view, but because he presents them as having far more importance than they really do. AA is not doing as badly as it does because its homepage is messy. It used to be that software was as close as you get to meritocracy. It seems that the web, and especially "web 2.0", changed that. We now have people like Scoble or Arrington who gain their status by pouring their energy not into building great stuff, but into ceaselessly promoting themselves. Many of us see this as crass and pushy.

mrshoe 17y ago
Exactly. No one is mad about his wild unconventionality. He's not even being unconventional. He's just telling AA to make their site look more web2.0-y. The criticism here is of Dustin's incredible arrogance in calling everyone at AA completely incompetent (which is patently untrue), and in his eagerness to make it a public controversy in order to shine the spotlight on himself. His web site is a virtual shrine to himself. Everyone knows that creating controversy draws public attention. Just check every 37signals talk or blog post. It works. All you have to do is vehemently argue that the experts are morons and that you know better, and people will pay attention. Some people don't appreciate the deliberate use of controversy to gain attention, though. That's the issue at hand.
sineltor 17y ago
AA is not doing as badly as it does because its homepage is messy. The user’s experience is always more important than you think it is. First impressions are always more important than they should be. In this case, I genuinely believe that AA will live or die based on the experience their customers have. Fixing their homepage is the start of a systematic change they need to make. However, if they don’t regain their customer-experience focus, I think it will doom them.