11–18 of 18 posts
Is this really new? It was my understanding that the appearance of the role of a dedicated developer was a fairly recent thing, after the commoditization of the computer, and that early programmers were all domain experts (e.g. scientists) that learned programming later in life.
What’s interesting is not just the current growth hacker trend,but how computer science is intersecting with other fields to create new professions. Is this really new? It was my understanding that the appearance of the role of a dedicated developer was a fairly recent thing, after the commoditization of the computer, and that early programmers were all domain experts (e.g. scientists) that learned programming later…
It debases hackers because what they're doing isn't really hacking per se, what they're doing is their job using tools in the way they were designed to be used (e.g. a/b tests etc.).
To me, this is like the way that words like geek and nerd have been hijacked by hipsters. It seems that someone somewhere thought the term 'hacker' was cool and decided to add growth to imply they're responsible for growth (which in many ways, neither marketers nor hackers are).
Somehow this term manages to debase both the terms hacker and marketer. Marketing people need to keep up with marketing trends which in a tech startup environment means you now need to have technical knowledge to do this. Good marketers have always used metrics where they're available, and to call them 'growth hackers' implies that marketers don't know how to use metrics or that they're marketers who 'kludge stuff to…
I wonder if there were pamphlets in old Europe decrying what those people on that island were doing to the language.
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1) Someone uses X (like game mechanics, industrial & visual design or artificial intelligence) in a new or more generalistic way with great success.
2) A lot of people start using X to get the same results.
3) A "consulting" industry starts to rise around X.
4) Someone gets tired of the overused X and calls it bullshit.
5) Everyone that didn't succeeded with X, probably after some kind of investment inspired by the new "consulting" industry, gets in wagon and calls it bullshit.
6) Some time after the "bullshit" narrative sets in, someone finds out that X can be useful. If he tries to defend it he either does it by carefully arguing "I'm on your side but...", or just change it's name.
This kind periodic behaviour seems to deamplificate until it reach some stable state, generally it's absorbed by academia and gets to be taught in schools. From there it can get some amplifications, and if it does the pattern repeats.
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Pioneers like patio11 popularized this "new field". That would be 1).
New hipstery terms start to rise, so I believe we are now in the transition between phase 2) and 3).
I'm excited to see how far ir goes.
As I wrote in another thread: --- 1) Someone uses X (like game mechanics, industrial & visual design or artificial intelligence) in a new or more generalistic way with great success. 2) A lot of people start using X to get the same results. 3) A "consulting" industry starts to rise around X. 4) Someone gets tired of the overused X and calls it bullshit. 5) Everyone that didn't succeeded with X, probably after some ki…
Somehow this term manages to debase both the terms hacker and marketer. Marketing people need to keep up with marketing trends which in a tech startup environment means you now need to have technical knowledge to do this. Good marketers have always used metrics where they're available, and to call them 'growth hackers' implies that marketers don't know how to use metrics or that they're marketers who 'kludge stuff to…
When thinking through and building acquisition and engagement paths, having technical chops helps you connect the dots in ways a traditional marketer would never dream--but there's still a place for both types of people.