Peeler Man, HN Salesmanship Hero, Passes
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
I still have my peeler.
He describes his peelers as being remarkable accomplishments of Swiss engineering that do not break, period, and repeatedly contrasts it with the peelers you can buy in most supermarkets in Europe and Asia. I can just about quote it from memory: "This isn't a cheap peeler. If you want a cheap peeler you can buy one at any dollar store. This peeler was made in Switzerland and nothing from Switzerland was ever cheap. You don't buy this peeler because it is cheap and you can replace it when it wears out, you buy it because it will be the last peeler you ever buy."
Now it might be the case that you and he are still talking about the same peeler. I think that this demonstrates one little technique which makes him a really good salesman for the peeler. I think that this technique is a useful one to stick in the quiver -- it works with positioning software, too. He is so consummately good at selling that I think we could learn a lot from him, including this one little technique, which is why I consider him noteworthy to HN.
On being the Last X You Will Every Buy: I use a variation of the same to position my software. Most software in my vertical is licensed in such a way that it requires repurchase every year. There are a bunch of reasons for this -- suffice it to say that most IP in my vertical is treated that way, software is largely produced by the existing IP makers, and they ported their license terms from their existing businesses without much regard to how software changes the game. I think my customers hate that business model with a burning passion, largely because my customers tell me they hate that business model with a burning passion. I licensed my software perpetually and position it, very explicitly, as The Last X You Will Ever Buy. I think this is one reason why I can get away with charging more than almost any of my competitors, announce a price increase, and have customers send me mail telling me how cheap I am.
I was not suggesting that it will necessarily break, but there are many ways to find yourself needing a new peeler. You could lose it. You could lend it to someone who doesn't give it back. Your girlfriend could borrow it and then break up with you before having given it back (though hopefully it won't be because of the peeler). Or it could just break - the handle won't break, of course, but the blade might eventually get dull, or the joint between the blade and the handle might get loose.
I agree that this guy was a good salesman, by the way, and that we can learn from that.
A really fantastic pitchman, great to watch and made an absolute craft out of his work.
I want one of those peelers.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=378852
Considering there were only 14 posts on this article, I don't think "HN Salesmanship hero" is in any way accurate... Perhaps he's the posters hero, or some subset of HN, but I don't think it's useful to assume all of HN thinks a certain way.
He certainly has a very good technique though, and I imagine was great to watch.
It's hard to properly mourn such an inspiring and humble performance. This is not willy loman. The peeler man's craft was an art form in a city where hyper capitalism and over commodification enslave most of its residents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/nyregion/03ades.html?partn...
Is it the same? It appears to be ...
As an understatement: most of us will not have our demoing skills celebrated on the front page of the NYT on the day we die.
I'm not saying that there wasn't some discussion of his salesmanship, but it's a long way, imho, from being a "salesman who's been discussed" (an achievement in and of itself) to being a "salesmanship hero".
I think a more appropriate headline for this article would have been "Peeler man, previously discussed on HN, passes"
I maintain that the title of this thread is unnecessary hyperbole, and if we're talking about respect, I'd appreciate it if the hordes of people who are downmodding me in some sort of sheeple momentum voting would take a second and consider whether my comments really deserve that kind of downvoting (which should only be reserved for things that are truly offensive, trolling, or spammy).
The word "hero", like the words "unique" and "expert" do not really mean anything anymore because they're so overused. And while I would not consider him a hero, it's always cool to see stories about people who are flat out really good at what they do.
I know what you mean, and to an extent these posts are a little testing, a little spiteful, to see how knee-jerk people's reactions are really going to be. You might say I'm daring the HN community to behave better than it seems to be behaving. It might cost a little karma. Oh well.
I have little respect for taboo subjects, I'm afraid. In fact, the opposite: I believe that everything should be discussable in a civil manner. I feel that taboos don't help society, and that sheeple responses to taboo subjects is one of the more despicable aspects of human nature. I have not made any statements in this thread that I believe should be considered offensive by a civilised person, and I stand behind those statements as I would if anyone else had made them.
Isn't that kind of the definition of trolling? It seems like you're kind of bringing it on yourself if what you're saying here is true.
The New Hacker's Dictionary defines trolling as:
[From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames. Derives from the phrase "trolling for newbies" which in turn comes from mainstream "trolling", a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll. If you don't fall for the joke, you get to be in on it.
Some people claim that the troll is properly a narrower category than flame bait, that a troll is categorized by containing some assertion that is wrong but not overtly controversial.
(from http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon_35.html#SEC42 )
I don't think I'm doing that.
He was one of maybe three or four people that there have been posts about that I've remembered, and it wasn't because of the NYT.
There's been something going on here recently that's incredibly troubling to me. A lot of the people who have been around HN for a long time are going off the tracks when they disagree with anything. I don't know if it's a knee jerk reaction to all the new people, or if people are just stressed out by the constant barrage of terrible economic news or what.
All that I know is that you're ordinarily a poster who has really interesting things to say, but somehow this thread has caused you to have a temper tantrum; and it doesn't suit you.
A simple change of wording on the title would have been a good idea - "Fantastic street seller, as featured in NYTimes, passed"
I don't think it's good to edit titles to pass opinion, especially when you're suggesting you're speaking for some group.
It's similar to a headline like "England devastated by death of Princess Diana". Erm well, it was shocking and sad, but I wasn't devastated.
This is one of the few times that I wish there was private messaging here. There is clearly some reflexive downvoting going on in this thread, and it really shouldn't be that way - people shouldn't be punished for having a conversation.
I call it lynch mob behaviour and I despise it. I'm quite happy to make it my personal crusade to fight that sort of group behaviour, which brings out the worst in all of us.
For the record, I would have had the same reaction if it wasn't me that had made the first couple of heavily downvoted posts (in fact, I have in the past).
I don't kneejerk-downmod. I have been known to kneejerk-upmod, but never the other way around.
I think what people were downmodding you for was the sheer waste of screen space over such a trivial matter.
This whole thread is such an embarrassment. This sort of angry race to the right margin over some trivial disagreement is the sort of thing that's only supposed to happen on other sites.
I know you don't mean it to be, but it's indistinguishable from trolling.
On the other hand, if I'd left the initial two posts as they were, chances are they'd be at -30, -50, maybe -80 by now, and perhaps there'd be some huge righteously offended response like there has been in other cases where someone made a slightly caustic comment on a thread like this (I think we can both recall one case where this happened).
Lynch mob behaviour is real on this site. I fought vehemently it then and I'll fight it now.