Comment by ErrantX | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ErrantX | Hacker News Reader

Hmm, my analysis (writing as I go):

- Too much "fluff"; his response sounds like a marketer not a builder

- In the opening two answers he basically contradicts his description; "co-authored notebooks" vs. "one author for a given note, and a threaded conversation around it". It's confusing.

- The alternative opening is even worse; I still have no idea what problem your solving. You just gave me a marketing pitch..

- The alternate answer for "Who needs what you’re making?" is better - but immediately begs the question "how are my labels necessarily effective for both myself, and the YC alumni" and "How do you know the YC alumni don't have their own tag system which they apply as they read emails" or even "sounds handy, but how are you overcoming the convenience factor associated with email"

- Any sensible listener will realise that a) and b) are not the only choices (this is a variation on my last bullet point) and be concerned that you are limiting yourself to only those outcomes.

- It also seems risky to pitch such a personal use case on a supposition. The "problem" might already have been effectively resolved for YC's communications.

All in all it reads a lot like a business person pitching to an engineer. One that is attuned to the problems of "gloss", and is looking for disruption and good engineering rather than a glossy pitch. I get that all the time and it is off putting. It strikes me that the key problem is you possibly don't speak the same language as pg.

As with other commentators; even with the revised answers, I'm still not sure what Rocketr is beyond a note taking app with social features.

My thoughts...

- What does a builder sound like? Aren't we all just trying to speak to customers? Are builders naturally better at that?

- "Co-authored notebooks" and "one author per note" are not contradictions at all. They speak to entirely different units (notes and notebooks).

- While you are correct that you and the startup may have different systems for categorizing, that's exactly the problem we're trying to point to. The siloed nature of how we capture and categorize information.

In closing, I am trying to speak to customers... not engineers.

Thank you for the feedback. I know it took time to write.

What does a builder sound like?

"When I write in emacs, it's inconvenient to share that with my team. When I write in the Wiki... well, I don't write in the wiki because it's annoying. I have been more productive doing X, and I think you will too."

In closing, I am trying to speak to customers... not engineers.

That's marketing speak for "I don't know who my customer is". You are pitching to a customer who is an engineer, so you should be speaking to engineers.

Thank you for the feedback. I know it took time to write.

That's what we do here... this sounds hollow.

I couldn't disagree with this comment more. You are not trying to sell your product to YC, you are trying to sell your company to YC. You do that by understanding your product and your customer and how you will bring the two together. Not by pretending some person in YC is suddenly your ideal customer and shifting your entire pitch around that.

That's what we do here... this sounds hollow.

Wow. Nice.

"Builders" have a common language - jargon - about how things work. It's specific and concretely describes the thing in question, usually through implied behavior. Once we communicate what something is, it's easy for us to understand how it can be used. Sometimes, with a few primers, we can figure out the use before we're told.

In other words, don't tell me you have a "delicious, round edible item with just the right amount of firmness and sweetness to be pleasant to eat." Just tell me you have an apple, and I'll figure out the rest.

Should Steve Jobs have said:

a) It's a tablet b) It's an iPad, or c) It's for consuming content in a relaxed and portable way?

Honest question. I'm curious what your approach would have been.

I think the point is that it's hard to imagine anyone at Apple -- a salesman like Jobs, the designers or software engineers, or even a greeter at an Apple retail store -- saying the phrase "bottom-up approach to knowledge management". (I don't even know what that means.)

The iPod, at least, was "1000 songs in your pocket", i.e., none of the above.

It's for

Indirect grammar is comparatively weak. It isn't "for consuming", it "consumes".

consuming content

No one "consumes content". They read, listen, watch, and play.

relaxed

A good writer conveys by action, not by description. If you say that a joke is funny, it is not funny.

portable

He wouldn't need to say this while holding the device in his hand. And he further conveyed this by describing the product's battery life.

So to conclude, Jobs would have said (and may have, I don't remember):

d) Here's a book (thumb, thumb), and here's a movie (play). Isn't that great?

Try saying that for your product.

Honest answer: depends on his audience. But I would never pick c), even for a consumer. It's not specific. No one wants to "consume content." They want to "read the newspaper" or "watch videos" or "listen to music." Those actions are, of course, consuming content, but you want to use words and phrases that allow people to imagine using your product. "Consuming content" does not cause me to think of myself using it.

I don't know if Jobs would have stuck with market-specific terms in the primary pitch (tablet) or yet been able to drive things on their terms (iPad). I think it would've been termed a "way" of doing something.

e.g., iPad is the simple and easy way to enjoy the things that matter to you.

I think the fundamental issue here is that PG tends to interview from an engineer's perspective.

For your business, you should absolutely speak to customers. For an interview with YC, you should absolutely speak to the interviewers (PG, et al), who, in this case, happen to think like engineers. The language you use should change according to your audience.

Aren't we all just trying to speak to customers?

In a YC interview? If you considered YC a customer then you definitely went about it the wrong way.

The sales pitch is fine for a certain style of customer. It's not in this context.

The point I am trying to make is that you should be speaking in pg's language; not the language of a corporate salesman.

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