> so why did he do it? This is the most interesting question, which the article doesn't answer.
Maybe he enjoyed bragging about his shrewd business practices.
A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)
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Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)
#12This reminds me of Adam Osborne, who tanked sales of his new Osbourne 1 by prematurely bragging about the future Osbourne 2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect
Interesting that much of what sunk Osborune was actually a sunk cost fallacy from the $150K of assembled Osbourne 1 boards... if they had been sold off to a liquidator or hobbiests, they might've still turned a profit on em in the end.
At the very least they could've scrapped the boards and taken the tax writeoff.
Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)
#13I couldn't help but think of Trump and his superlatives. Lots of people joke when he says something is "the best" or "the greatest it's ever been". Trump does this quite a bit with respect to the economy and the markets.
The engineer in me takes things at face value: measured, empirical and framed in the right context. But I can understand the salesman approach to selling: you need to promote your product as the best.
This is especially true for the markets where valuations are pretty much "maxed out" and at all time highs. So the market runs on optimism and future expectations. The market will go up because I say it will go up! Nothing wrong with that perspective IMHO - insofar as talking about the markets.
Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)
#14What were the effects it had on the company? They just mention the stock tanking which, by itself, is pretty meaningless. I'm assuming people stopped buying the stuff?
Secondly, why did it have any effect? Who would change their practices because of this? It really rams home how deeply brands are integrated into our understanding of value.
How depressing.
Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)
#15I think the more interesting lesson to learn from this was how Ratner was able to deal and cope with the public embarrassment following the mishap. It reminds me of this TED talk where Jon Ronson talks about how public shaming has gone out of control with the advent of social media: https://www.ted.com/talks/jon_ronson_what_happens_when_onlin...
Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)
#16It's funny how people will paint being honest as a gaffe.
The original gaffe was selling people crap and not telling them it's crap.
Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)
#17> so why did he do it? This is the most interesting question, which the article doesn't answer.
He'd made the same jokes in speeches several times before, and it had gone down well with the audience. Presumably he just didn't consider the possibility that the press would think it worth making a story out of.
Interesting; what was difference about this audience? Or was it just a slow news day this time?
Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)
#18Interesting anecdote, but holy minimal-effort-article-writing, Batman:
> Have you ever heard of the “Ratner effect”?
> Well by the end of this post you will know what it means.
Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)
#19I think a lot of people, then and now, miss the important takeaway here. It's not about Ratner or his products; it's about all the other products that we continue to use and trust every day, because their creators are smart enough to maintain the lie.
Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)
#20All the guy did was be honest, and its not like he revealed anything people didnt know already. Seems like an emperors new clothes kind of situation.
calling it 'crap' is quite a different thing from saying it is 'affordable' and 'a good value', even if both imply the same thing w/r/t cost:quality vs absolute quality in that product family - one will get you bad press and social stigma, the other will win you fans. it's all about presentation.