The Art of Knowledge

 

Cluetrain Derailed

Ok so I read this because Tim said it was good but I found it to be really synical and pretentious (well then Bret why didn't you like it). It did have some interesting points and I thought the premise for the manifest was solid, but I don't understand why it had to come off sounding like the fat comic store owner from the Simpsons wrote it.

1. #7 - Hyperlinks Subvert Hierarchy - ...quite interesting and very true. When human's control most of the information on a network, and the playing field for access to controlling quality amongst information and technology has been leveled, than the truth has a tendecy to leak out via the hyperlink. Humans have this inherent ability to deceive and also to divulge information. They tend to divulge when they have nothing or little to gain - i.e. - a network or personal website. These mass networks are vouching for the truth and the quality tha has always been evident but was slightly muffled. Now there is human interaction interspersed with mass marketing and where once was only passive facts, now exists interactive communities collaborating and sharing. Our communities and friends used to tell us things such as, "Dawn liquid soap bleached my clothes. Don't use it" And that information would have spread through a small community. Now the community boundaries are starting to evaporated and their populations are growing exponentially. Sidenote - Look how you have been getting most of your news and information lately; from trusted friends and services via the hyperlink.
   
   
2. #14/15/16 - Language of the future is changing - How true this has become even if you don't see the real aspects just yet. Think on a very small level at first and then imagine how it could get bigger. Picture your messenger convo's, email messages, ... , abbreviations, less salutations and facts, pictures, and expressions via crappy keyboard imagery " 8^) " . Now understand how often you use the medium of digital as opposed to voice and how they are starting to overlap. This is the tip of the iceberg when you consider the working class TV generation and computer generation's attentions spans have been cut to 1/10 of what they already rediculously were in the 70's and 80's. This lack of attention will call for more facts, explosive emotion to gratify unbuilding instant-satisfying emotional needs, and exact timing. On the downside it will also bring an extreme shock value to the message. Look at the growth of porn and, violence on television and in the movies, in the last 20 years. But on the upswing we will be less likely to waste time or deal with bullshit run around. The need for instant gratification via communication and information will be of major importance in the way people are advertised to and the way companies exchange information.
   
   
3. #27 - Arrogant Language - I never really understood this. When I used to sell computers (Oh Dear lord!) I begged the manager to stop using scary acronyms and simply rate the machines using charts or outlining simple points that make this machine right for the customer, "Do you like to go fast and play games. Then this is your machine", "Do you need word processing and Internet...". I think they do that now. But there was always this arrogance about the product that turned people off and made my job harder(lucky for them and me people needed computers at the time - 98') but now (and even then with Gateway) they have realized the draw to simplicity. I just wish programmers, programming products, advanced hardware (servers and routers) would think the same way. I see them starting to market to the world about how easy it is to be a programmer or own a server and run it, but it's always surrounded by aloof arrogance. It's not fucking rocket science guys. Anybody can be a systems admin, or web developer. So stop guarding your little lego forts of acronyms with polysyllabic swords made of shitty tin foil. Take your white papers and stick em' up your ass.
   
   
4. #52 - #62 - I hate to say it but I don't think most companies will ever divulge to the public. Most companies seem like they were started to get them away from the public and create a little club so they could play(well some work hard) with all their buddies and ask 24 year olds to marry them. Companies you see now became companies to have control over rules and people who were at that time controlling them. So they built a little cocoon where they could hide and defend. I think the idea of an actual company needs to be redrawn form close to scratch(do I hjave the asnwers for that, Hell no, but doesn't something just feel askew with our economy and corporate world). There are no battles, or there should be no battles, other than making a better product or service, taking care of your employees and creating an environment that people would want to be a part of. Sidenote - Do you ever get the feeling as though you are walking into a prison rather than a corporation when you stand at the foot of one of those fortune 500 buildings. I think the company system as we know it is destined to fail.
   
   
5. # 65-67 - Unfortunately the company you see today wasn't always that way. At one time they were 2 guys in a garage, Grandma was answering the phone on a cardboard box, or the $5.50 an hour employee hired in the sandlots outside was packing boxes in the back because the company just got their first big order that needed to go out tomorrow. But, the mob (us) overwhelmed them with our needs as proper consumers. Therefore, they needed to develop an infrastructure that was automated, often short-sighted, stand-offish and cold. And then this somewhere became the company and people became lost. So what will be next - a return to human? How? What infrastructure will support such a coming strain as result of our monopolistic type consumer land? Mom and Pops no longer exist. How can we make IBM our neghbor?
   
   
6. #84-88 - I was just reading how internal branding is extremely powerful. If you can get your employees to believe and carry your flag, they may amaze you with their heart, imagination, and will. It is only when people don't feel apart that they become sloth. Just picture a highschool football team with a paycheck. Well it's not that extreme but you get the idea. Internal branding should be an extremely high priority. These are the people that help to make the product and if they don't believe in you or your company, odds are, noone else will either. Sidenote - Companies have aura's. Think about Microsoft or the Internet boom and how those companies looked to you and then think about walking into a franchised McDonalds or MBNA to go to work. They have different personalities.
   

Link posted by JVMM : 12:47 AM