Why The Haters are Wrong About Growth Hacking(bothsidesofthetable.com)
bothsidesofthetable.com
Why The Haters are Wrong About Growth Hacking
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2014/01/11/the-haters-are-wrong-about-growth-hacking/
5 comments
The car example brings to mind Richard Stallman's post, On Hacking:
"It is hard to write a simple definition of something as varied as hacking, but I think what these activities have in common is playfulness, cleverness, and exploration. Thus, hacking means exploring the limits of what is possible, in a spirit of playful cleverness. Activities that display playful cleverness have "hack value"."
http://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html
"It is hard to write a simple definition of something as varied as hacking, but I think what these activities have in common is playfulness, cleverness, and exploration. Thus, hacking means exploring the limits of what is possible, in a spirit of playful cleverness. Activities that display playful cleverness have "hack value"."
http://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html
I've already said before that it's the best to drop the term "hacker" altogether, unless you define it beforehand or are in a setting where it already has been implicitly defined (like in a hackerspace).
There's too many of them, some contradictory.
There's too many of them, some contradictory.
Every time I see the word "hater" in response to criticism in the tech sector, I roll my eyes and find something else to read.
The problem is the term "hacker" is nebulous enough on its own that to throw it into an entirely different context which may or may not have anything to actually do with "hacking" causes a lot of confusion. If we would have called it "growth marketing" or something more specific that didn't use the word "hack" there would have never been any confusion whatsoever.
Even as a marketer, I don't know when what I'm doing is growth hacking and when it isn't. Is it when I'm building my own tools? Is it when I'm trying to exploit systems? Is it when I'm baking something into the product that will help it spread? Is it only when I'm doing something new and novel? The word isn't well-defined.
Now all we can do is debate semantics. Though careful wording is part of my job, bickering about what is or isn't some buzzword isn't what I enjoy. I want to grow products I believe in, so I find it best to call myself a "growth marketer," "marketer who can program," or a "full-stack marketer" depending on the context.
The reality is, it doesn't matter what a word meant when it was created if that's not what it means to the person with whom you're communicating.
Even as a marketer, I don't know when what I'm doing is growth hacking and when it isn't. Is it when I'm building my own tools? Is it when I'm trying to exploit systems? Is it when I'm baking something into the product that will help it spread? Is it only when I'm doing something new and novel? The word isn't well-defined.
Now all we can do is debate semantics. Though careful wording is part of my job, bickering about what is or isn't some buzzword isn't what I enjoy. I want to grow products I believe in, so I find it best to call myself a "growth marketer," "marketer who can program," or a "full-stack marketer" depending on the context.
The reality is, it doesn't matter what a word meant when it was created if that's not what it means to the person with whom you're communicating.
[deleted]
Growth hackers are 2013's social managers.
Is "Social Media Guru" still a thing?
Oooh, a downvote for stating my opinion. You must be a growth hacker yourself.
This is from a very real recent conversation between my friend and me:
Three days later, I chat with him:
Obviously, Tom isn't his real name.
Another example is wherein one of my friends told me he actually 'hacked' his car. I really thought he did something to his engine/ECU until when he confessed to me that he just found out a way of shifting gears that made the car accelerate (slightly) faster.
The problem with the term 'hacker' is that it's mis-used to the point where it affects it's actual meaning. Now imagine if Tom had said that in an interview or in an environment where bullshit terms and hipster buzz words are not common, like a traditional enterprise company for example.
My favorite HN commenter RyanZAG put it out beautifully in one of his comments from an old thread[1]:
[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5176152