how to tell

I really liked MS’s new ‘hire cool people who will talk about us’ thing, back when they stuck to hiring people like Jon Udell who actually knew what they were talking about.
Hugh, do both yourself and MS a favor. Reread Hughtrain and/or Cluetrain, realize that the conversations you are starting here are born out of very old-skool marketing hubris and out-of-touchness that even MS started abandoning a while ago, and quit MS before you embarass yourself and them any more. Stick to what you know and what you love. It is obvious that what you know here is, well, bupkus, and that what you currently seem to love is not creating better technology but parroting very old, very dead MS marketing lines that everyone in tech (including MS) realized were dead years ago. You might fool some people for a while, but it is already starting to fall apart and will only get worse, not better.

(shrug)
“It is all about thriving in markets that are smarter and faster than you are.”
MS didn’t get that in 1999; you got that once upon a time. Oddly, the situation is now reversed- most of MS seems to get it that they need to work with the market and with their users. And you’ve regressed- you’re regurgitating the same old shit they used to peddle, and that no one buys anymore. And they still won’t buy it if it has squiggly lines and is on a business card.
“It is all about being utterly fucked if you don’t know what I’m talking about.”
— some dude who seemed to know what he was talking about at the time.
If you don’t realize that the message of this comic is very out of date, and has no resonance out in the real world… you’re fucked, and the market will find someone else with sense and credibility to pimp cool suits and wine. The loss is the guy who is about to be fucked, not mine. 🙂

It’s developers cum “interface” designers that need to care about the user.
Make something easier to use than not to use. With a research budget of $5 billion per year, surely Microsoft could manage that (as well as use it as the annual tax write-off) ??

Luis: As you sat down to write – did someone insert a chili or three into your rectum? If not then it sure as heck sounds like it.
Just what planet are you on when you can say:
“MS didn’t get that in 1999; you got that once upon a time. Oddly, the situation is now reversed- most of MS seems to get it that they need to work with the market and with their users.”
That’s not the point.
You ask M$ if they can hire top talent where it matters? No.
Why? Because talent thinks M$ is irrelevant and Hugh is trying to do something interesting to influence change.
I’m more than happy to see Hugh step into Scoble’s shoes. If you have a problem with that then fine. But don’t slag the guy off simply because you want to rewrite history.

I don’t understand this comic. Which part of the comic techie’s statement is the crack-headed part?

• not caring about platforms?
• caring about users?
• both (caring about users AND not caring about platforms)?
• claiming that they are related?
• claiming that they are not related?
• claiming that they can be separated?
• thinking/pretending that their own platform choice comes from concern for their users (and not personal bias)? (I think this is the interpretation Luis was reacting to.)

There certainly are a lot of zealots who will pretend their platform recommendations come from concern for those they advise. Their zealotry and idealism does not make all their claims wrong.
I often find that someone whose defense against such zealots is to attack the enthusiasm of the zealots is what one calls a Snake-Oil Salesman. “Pay no attention to that man over there claiming to be a disgruntled customer. I’ve never seen him before. He is clearly insane. (damn hippies!)”
If Microsoft really wants to play in the new market they need to “embrace and extend” the new philosophies. Revisionism isn’t enough. Getting brilliant artists like Hugh to make up new stories about them isn’t enough. They need to provide real value with NO STRINGS ATTACHED. That’s something they can still compete at. DRM provides no value to users. Market control is not an acceptable price for ease of use.
The popular revuloutionary saying goes “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Microsoft is now at the fighting stage. The only way for them to survive is to stop fighting the revolution and join it. If Microsoft wants to join the revolution they need to put down their weapons and join hands with the hippies.
Maybe Paul Graham spoke too soon, but eventually the hippies will win.
DAMN HIPPIES.

I figured the cartoon was sarcastic.
As for Luis, wow. It’s just a cartoon. I’d hate to see his reaction to something dire.

Microsoft will grow in the future buy continuing support of agile software methods and the tools to support those methods. Team System is awesome, and the first real software aimed at making my life easier (I’m the guy who writes software). .Net 3.0 offers great options like WPF that let me create apps *exactly* as the user interface designer wanted.
A key idea in agile methods is there is one and only one measure of software success: how the users like the program. The technologies that will be hot in the next decade will be the ones the support the agile mindset.
The comic – I get it totally. I go into a meeting and say “i don’t give a crap about the OLAP details of your data warehouse, this ‘dashboard’ is ugly as hell.” It’s not the users that think I’m crazy – it’s the other IT people.
BTW Hugh, if you figure out how to market tech without triggering the fire and brimstone you get in the comments… there is a job for you in the Middle East 😉

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