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Comment by ZephyrBlu | Hacker News Reader

I can't help but think that all these frameworks are just post-hoc rationalizations of success.

I totally get where you're coming from.

The framework shown in the blog isn't meant to be a "step by step" guide to building product. In fact, this framework isn't even always followed in improv. And to be honest, the improv analogy isn't essential to communicate the lessons either (to build with focus etc.)

It's just a fun comparison, and I think you get a better appreciation of both crafts from it :)

Worse: posts like this are just poorly disguised marketing. I miss the days when ads were just a bit of text describing the product and asking you to consider buying it.

Ads != marketing. You can still have your ads. The days you're describing never existed. Everything is marketing.

There was a time when companies only used plain text ads for marketing. No brand consultants, no content marketing, no tracking. It lasted until WW1 or so.

I always loved Australia's "shouty bloke" ads, which only really died in the 90's.

Typically, they consisted of a beer-bellied "true blue" Aussie, nominally the owner/founder of the company, yelling at the camera about whatever product that his company sold. Fast cut to lots of pictures of stuff for sale. End. Genius

given the subject matter I have to think of Rick and Morty's 'Ants-In-My-Eyes Johnson' skit, itself the product of an improv session.

> given the subject matter I have to think of Rick and Morty's 'Ants-In-My-Eyes Johnson' skit, itself the product of an improv session.

Yes, and the Interdimensional Cable bits//episodes are them getting stoned and riffing, then animating.

Source: have been high

As grim as that is, some of us still engage as if it weren't, ignore the self-promotion, and soldier on to the next post. If enough people do that, it counterbalances the marketing. HN is a wide but shallow audience. But it knows crappy marketing when it sees it.

I didn't wrote this blogpost but I work on eesel myself. I think it's a bit harsh to say that this post is just poorly disguised marketing. Obviously having a blog is a way to help us getting more exposition for eesel, but we're trying to share genuine learnings on every post. I'm definitely with you, I'm also tired of marketing disguised as empty content, but I know that wasn't the intention there and I'm sorry if the post made you feel this way.

FWIW I agree you walk the line of value:exposure-for-the-product and come out on the right side here.

But I'd also say "I'm sorry if the post made you feel this way" comes off as passive-aggressive - which I don't think was your intent just an unfortunate choice of words. Ultimately readers, particularly on HN, have their guard up at all times because of the prevalence of dark-patterns in startups and so even if OPs impression was mis-applied here it was still warranted in general.

Makes sense, thanks for the feedback! That definitely wasn't meant to be passive-aggressive, I think I just tend to say "sorry" too often (I just refrained myself from writing sorry again here).

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