Aaron Swartz: How To Launch Software

Post by eugenejen » Fri, Aug 22, 2008, 9:20 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #29

eugenejen wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, he is testing Jason Calacanis's approach to PR. By attacking Aaron Swartz ad hominen, he raises his fame/notoriety in hacker community. Oh. I just forget Linus Torvalds called security people m________ting monkeys. It seems very hard to discuss issues rationally lately without calling names that based on some a priori assumptions of the opposite side.

He called OpenBSD people masturbating monkeys. He called security people whores. He actually had a sympathetic audience among many security pros for that statement. The whole thing is indeed a bit shady. That doesn't make me any happier with my original comment, though.

Post by ComputerGuru » Fri, Aug 22, 2008, 10:12 PM UTC

ComputerGuru wrote: post #31

Can people please stop using "software" and "webapp" interchangeably? I realize most members here are founders of startups that deal with webapps, but there are some startups that deal with traditional desktop applications - true "software," who share similar interests. That said - I wonder which of these two approaches is better for desktop software development. I'd imagine the fact that a user has installed your so…

Post by inklesspen » Fri, Aug 22, 2008, 11:53 PM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #8

tptacek wrote: post #3

37Signals has launched four (4) commercial products, and takes in (by my guess, from headcount and subscription numbers) mid-high 7 figures from them. Aaron Swartz has launched, by my count, no successful products (unless I'm wrong and Reddit wasn't already a success story when he got there). From Aaron's own web page, here's what I get when I click on his "my day job" link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29804691@N02/…

It could be that Aaron is talking from bitter experience here. Infogami was very much a Hollywood launch. He did almost exactly what 37signals suggested. He posted a teaser as soon as he got into the YCombinator program. He had mavens and insiders try out the product (I think; I can't imagine PG not trying out a YC startup's product before launch and showing it to his friends). And then he launched with a big splash.…

Post by pius » Sat, Aug 23, 2008, 12:08 AM UTC

aaronsw wrote: post #23

tptacek wrote: post #3

37Signals has launched four (4) commercial products, and takes in (by my guess, from headcount and subscription numbers) mid-high 7 figures from them. Aaron Swartz has launched, by my count, no successful products (unless I'm wrong and Reddit wasn't already a success story when he got there). From Aaron's own web page, here's what I get when I click on his "my day job" link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29804691@N02/…

Geez, that's a lot of ad hominem . Did I accidentally murder your dog or something? I wasn't saying anything about what 37signals does , I was criticizing what they recommended . You know, in their book. That I link to in my first paragraph.

Post by shiranaihito » Sat, Aug 23, 2008, 12:45 AM UTC

spolsky wrote: post #24

tptacek wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aaron advocates avoiding the "Hollywood Launch", marketing your product only after you've verified that "random people" are satisfied with the offering. I'm asking you: are you saying that after Fog Creek spends 9 months building and testing a product, dogfooding it with internal users, and running closed beta testing, that you would avoid publicity for it until random paying customers started liking it? Because I fe…

again, with the ad hominems!