Here's the author's bio and picture if it helps put this article in context: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/paul-constant/Author?oid=...
So he's a hipster twat? Not too surprised.
Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.
41–50 of 93 posts
Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.
#42Great writing, reminds me of David Foster Wallace's work.
Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.
#43I bet these dudes were there http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6507690/hardly-working-sta...
That is definitely one of the better CollegeHumor videos.
Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.
#44Woah. How did this drop from #2? There are articles above this on HN that have less points and were submitted at an earlier time...
It may have been flagged. If a post gets flagged enough it will get pushed to page 2 no matter how many upvotes it gets.
Must have hurt someone's feelings
Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.
#45Really enjoying the author's prose. This had me rolling: >> It’s like watching some sadist work over a baby lamb with a rusty crowbar and a broken gin bottle. The names of these startups sound like the products of an aggressive brain tumor on the frontal lobe. Crowdegy, Placeling, Kouply, QuoteRobot, Appthwack, Makegood, Onthego, Nickler, Kahal, Tanzio, Taskk. They’re all whimsical and unique in exactly the same way.
Actually, I quite like the name Appthwack.
I got a kick out of "Mehole" and "Simplert" from the list of possibly real names a couple sentences later in the article.
I have no idea what their product or service would be, but I'm having fun thinking of things...
Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.
#46Two quotes from George Orwell spring to mind:
"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink."
"If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them."
nuff said...?
Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you should figure out what content you want to convey first; throwing pretty descriptive words at a page with no content is a good way to get garbage.
I understand this sentiment. e e cummings and James Joyce might be interesting counter-examples, but then again they were not tech writers. I suppose that I mean incisive and beautiful prose will keep me coming back and paying attention to what you say (because it is a pleasure to read) rather than being lost in the flotsam and jetsam of articles bobbing to the surface of HN every day.
Anything worth writing is worth writing well.
But not everything is worth writing.
I would not even begin to disagree with you about the merits of beautiful prose, but would the article have been anything more than a collection of entertaining images and vitriol if the author hadn't been skewering a very real and obvious and silly trend?
Most of us have probably shaken our heads at some startup name or another, or rolled our eyes at a particularly unbearable lump of marketing-speak. So underneath all those pretty words and images lies a sentiment we understand and can sympathize with.
If you want your blog READ instead of skimmed for buzzwords and facts, write things worth writing.
Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.
#48Investors are so desperate to find the next homerun that they'll cater to the ridiculous that is speed dating for startup ideas.
Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, I quite like the name Appthwack.
For those of you who are too young to have lived through the original dot-com boom, I can't recommend this 1999 article on company naming from Salon highly enough: http://www.salon.com/1999/11/30/naming/ Read the whole thing, it's hilarious. As soon as I saw the parade of names in the OP I was reminded of one of the names the naming consultants in the the Salon piece devised -- "Jamcracker": When Altman and Manning p…
I'm starting to head off-topic here, but that sounds like a scene right out of William Gibson's _Pattern Recognition_. The main character has an allergy to corporate branding and logos, and charges an absurd fee to sit in on a marketing meeting and simply give yea/nay judgements on logos. She can't explain why or how she can tell what's going to be good, but her judgements are considered gospel.
Re: Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.
#50I bet these dudes were there http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6507690/hardly-working-sta...
That is definitely one of the better CollegeHumor videos.
from the internet-themed, I prefer this one http://www.collegehumor.com/video/2563451/internet-commenter...