Comment by gatordan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gatordan | Hacker News Reader

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I can accept bad metaphors and analogies in HN comments; this a technically focused community and the comments are so far above above most online forums that nitpicking about literary devices would be ridiculous. But I can't forgive the hotdog/hamburger/caviar analogy in this full length blog post. It does not convey his message well and really does the article a disservice. This writing should have been more thought out considering it is a follow up to his previous posts on this subject that got quite a bit of attention.

I realize this is somewhat off topic. But as an entrepreneur I feel this is worth noting because I can't overstate how affective a good metaphor (or good, well revised writing in general) can be in persuading others. And as a reader how easily a bad one can turn me off especially when woven throughout your entire piece.

What's wrong with the metaphor? How would you have described the problem differently?

I thought it was a really good description of the situation Facebook is in. People have speculated for years about all of the different ways they could produce insane revenue/profits (the hot dog -> caviar machine), but their current revenue (the hot dogs) is very lackluster.

I think the issue is that metaphors work best when they are about real situations. The idea of a metaphor (usually) is to help a person understand one situation by mapping their knowledge of another, more familiar, situation to the first. No one is familiar with the problem of turning hot dogs into caviar, because no one is trying to do it. If anything, the actual problem is more familiar to those on HN than the metaphor.

"I can't overstate how affective a good metaphor (or good, well revised writing in general) can be in persuading others."

Muphry's law[1] strikes again.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law

Affective - causing emotion or feeling.

I was conscious of my usage although ill be the first to admit i make typos all the time. To elaborate, writing can evoke feelings good or bad, feelings of familiarity or confusion, and these feelings can lend to a more persuasive writing. This was my point in the second paragraph.

You were not persuaded. Fair point. Blaming the metaphor is probably going too far. Perhaps you weren't the intended audience?

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