Just kidding about the title – all I have to say is “Well played, Mr. Gruber, well played.” That, and sorry about misspelling your name!
Stats courtesy of Alexa.com. Looks just like the 1% / 99% wage charts!
And John: keep sending people over here to Global Nerdy! #OccupyMyAdSenseRevenue!
20 replies on “1% Blogger Attacks 99% Blogger”
I was looking forward to reading what you had to say about Gruber’s comments. Nothing, really? Just “Well played”?
[…] Welcome Daring Fireball readers! In case you were wondering if I’ve prepared a response to the article titled The Types of Companies that Publish Future Concept Videos, take a look here. […]
Jeff: Really, “well played”. He put forth a good argument, and I’m also working against a deadline. Global Nerdy is my little side project, but Shopify pays the bills.
I’m sure I’ll post some thoughts on his article, but they’ll have to wait until work calms down and I’ve given a reply some considerable thought.
I think John has a point though. Concept videos only take you so far. Generating inspiration for the next hit is all well and good but it doesn’t put bread on anyone’s table today (aside from the tables of the people who make concept videos, obviously).
A case in point is the courier video. That was a concept video for a product that positioned itself against products that are currently shipping today. Then the product got cancelled – if indeed it ever really was actively being looked at in the first place. Microsoft looked stupid, Apple’s iPad continued to eat Microsoft’s tablet lunch and Google laughed themselves hoarse and carried on developing android 3.0. How did that help Microsoft?
It’s easy to talk about tomorrow but in order to get there you need to deliver today. I’m a former Microsoft MVP and was one for a very long time, so I know MS quite well, have a good idea of what makes them tick and I know they have plenty of smart people there. So where’s their today? And don’t tell me “Windows 8” because as promising as that looks, I still can’t buy it *today*.
Jeff writes:
“I was looking forward to reading what you had to say about Gruber’s comments. Nothing, really? Just “Well played”?”
The answer is obvious: it gets all those Daring Fireball readers to click again. Increase your ad impressions with zero extra effort.
Mmh… Sorry to stay off-topic, but I find it saddening that you use #Occupy semantics for something like this. You’re making an important world event look like it is background noise. Disappointing.
#Occupy supporter: I agree with a lot of the #Occupy stuff, but don’t think it’s so sacred a cow that the meme can’t be borrowed for the purposes of humor.
Here’s what your little content-free extra made me think: I’ll never click on a come-on from globalnerdy again. Oh, and Shopify, you say? OK, I’ll know what to expect there too.
Still, you could use the time while you wait for me to visit to make a concept video about how AMAZING it will be in nine years’ time. Think of it as a star to navigate by in the pitch blackness.
Thanks for collecting the concept videos in the first post. That added value, Now, though, you’re back to null. Je regrette.
What’s the point of even mentioning Gruber’s traffic compared to yours? Not sure what you’re trying to prove. That he’s smarter than you and should pick on someone else? I’m genuinely curious.
Keith: I did it because it fits with the “1% / 99%” theme, which I’m doing strictly for laughs because he did quite a good job taking my article apart and his readership dwarfs mine. That’s really all there is to it.
Joey, don’t roll over. Gruber makes a good argument, but as usual he falls into the thinking that if modern Apple doesn’t do something it isn’t right/good/useful/important/helpful/etc. Apple doesn’t discuss products/ideas until they are ready to ship, and they’re super successful, so obviously that must be the only right way to do run a company. Companies do things differently. As a writer I know the value of a good outline, and that’s what I think these videos are….or maybe they’re just Microsoft’s attempt to establish prior art to invalidate all of Apple’s future “we invented everything” patent lawsuits.
Fact is Joey has no more argument because Gruber’s post was clear and honest. Joey’s goal was to demonstrate Gruber is a fanboy. Now that Gruber demonstrates he has arguments and Joey not, Joey don’t know how to reply. It’s so easy.
Can’t wait to know where your Courier is, Joey.
rogerdodger: Nope, the point of my original article was not to demonstrate that John is a fanboy, but to put forth the idea that in a company without a keeper of the vision like Steve Jobs, concept videos might be the only way to promote some kind of future vision that goes beyond either making incremental changes to what works or playing catch-up.
John’s rebuttal was good and simple: just look at the kind of companies that make concept videos: Apple-sans-Jobs (nearly died), Sun (nearly died, absorbed by Oracle), AT&T (the ideas came true, but no thanks to them), RIM (not healthy). I have to concede the point.
I have no problem with his rebuttal, because the main point of my blog post wasn’t about trashing John Gruber, in spite of the slight jape at his expense (which, alas, detracted from the main point of the article — duly noted for future posts). It was about exploring an idea, and in his rebuttal, he gave me a new idea and I have to say “good point”.
These things happen. Writers are often told to “murder their darlings” — ditch things that they created and may love dearly, but just don’t work — and we programmers are encouraged to practice “egoless programming”, where we separate our self-worth from the code we write and sometimes have to accept that the code we made might not be the best for the task at hand, and to learn from that.
As for the Courier: it died in the Microsoft sausage factory. It’s a pity, but I’m fine with my iPad — a nice machine, integrates very nicely with my MacBook Pro and iPhone 4, and I got it for free, having won it at a karaoke contest at SxSW, which I attended on Microsoft’s dime.
Excellent response, Joey. So rarely seen in blogs: “good point”.
Mr deVilla, i truly was expecting to read your reply, in shake of a good argument, but now I can see that you don´t know how to answer Mr Gruber, silly me. I taught it could be a “same level” discussion. This post is simply cheap. this is the last time I will ever visit your site, have a nice life Mr deVilla.
Mar Said: Since when is “well played” not a good response to a good rebuttal?
Yikes! I thought you would have a response worth reading. Instead I got a graph showing how you seem happy to leech. Good luck there, you might have had a new reader.
M David: No, that’s just me turning a lemon into lemonade.
Defensive much?
BTW, the Courier would have sucked without a flexible display. Maybe that’s why MS canned it (for now).
I think saying good point isn’t reprehensible.