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In Search of Stupidity: Over 40 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters
"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."
Karl Marx, Capitalist Critic
For fans of the first and second edition, the primary mission of In Search of Over 20 (now 40) Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters remains unchanged. Within this third edition you’ll find a carefully updated and curated collection of the best of the worst and the newest of the stupid (and all of them completely avoidable). As with Dante’s Inferno, this book is designed to embark you on a journey to the stygian depths of Marketing Hell. There’s Steve Ballmer lashed to a rock for eternity as hordes of Windows 8 users endlessly devour his liver while screaming “Where’s the Start Button!” Next to him Jeff Bezos is endlessly stacking unsold pallets of Fire Phones in a warehouse that always adds a new level just when it seems the building is full. There's Sundar Pinchai strapped to a chair and while explaining forever (or until the Department of Justice finishes its anti-trust probe, whichever comes first) how Google search algorithms work to zombie-eyed members of Congress who immediately forget everything they’ve just been told.
But not to worry. As with Dante and Virgil, Stupidity will guide you through this blasted landscape, ensuring you avoid pestilences such as Steve Jobs Disease, the whirling terror of Microsoft’s Windows 8 positioning maelstrom, and the fiery lakes of political doom Facebook, Google, Twitter and others have voluntarily plunged into. For you, history will not repeat itself.
A quick sampling of just some of the Vedic lessons you’ll learn on your 4 journey
Why it’s a bad idea for CEOs to promote yourself to the role of just-like-Steve-Jobs-product-manager-God when you have no PM training and lack Jobs’ innate critique
On June 14, 2014 in Seattle, Jeff Bezos, doing his very best to imitate Steve Jobs live on stage, introduced the Fire Phone. But it soon became apparent that whatever spirit force Bezos had filched from Jobs, it had failed to charge him with the hoped-for charisma and presence. His presentation was overlong, flat, and rushed through natural applause points. As the plodding session ground on, you could feel the Jobs mana draining from Bezos’ body. When he reached the section discussing the Fire Phone’s rubber frame, the spirit force had already spiraled off the stage and headed back to the afterworld. When Bezos was finally done, everyone felt relieved.
What happens when you fail to study the history of one of high-tech’s legendary positioning
If you had studied the history of WordStar vs. WordStar 2000 in Stupidity's first two edition, the Start button hadn’t disappeared; it had mutated into a new interface which bore little resemblance to the desktop metaphor that had fronted Windows since 1995. In short, 28 years after the introduction of WordStar 2000, Microsoft had created two new products Were called Windows 8.Cost the same.Possessed overlapping functionality.Didn’t look like each other.Only they had done MicroPro one better and recreated our positioning catastrophe in a single product . And has had happened with WordStar and WordStar 2000, fire and ruin rained down on Redmond and Windows 8.
Karl Marx, Capitalist Critic
For fans of the first and second edition, the primary mission of In Search of Over 20 (now 40) Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters remains unchanged. Within this third edition you’ll find a carefully updated and curated collection of the best of the worst and the newest of the stupid (and all of them completely avoidable). As with Dante’s Inferno, this book is designed to embark you on a journey to the stygian depths of Marketing Hell. There’s Steve Ballmer lashed to a rock for eternity as hordes of Windows 8 users endlessly devour his liver while screaming “Where’s the Start Button!” Next to him Jeff Bezos is endlessly stacking unsold pallets of Fire Phones in a warehouse that always adds a new level just when it seems the building is full. There's Sundar Pinchai strapped to a chair and while explaining forever (or until the Department of Justice finishes its anti-trust probe, whichever comes first) how Google search algorithms work to zombie-eyed members of Congress who immediately forget everything they’ve just been told.
But not to worry. As with Dante and Virgil, Stupidity will guide you through this blasted landscape, ensuring you avoid pestilences such as Steve Jobs Disease, the whirling terror of Microsoft’s Windows 8 positioning maelstrom, and the fiery lakes of political doom Facebook, Google, Twitter and others have voluntarily plunged into. For you, history will not repeat itself.
A quick sampling of just some of the Vedic lessons you’ll learn on your 4 journey
Why it’s a bad idea for CEOs to promote yourself to the role of just-like-Steve-Jobs-product-manager-God when you have no PM training and lack Jobs’ innate critique
On June 14, 2014 in Seattle, Jeff Bezos, doing his very best to imitate Steve Jobs live on stage, introduced the Fire Phone. But it soon became apparent that whatever spirit force Bezos had filched from Jobs, it had failed to charge him with the hoped-for charisma and presence. His presentation was overlong, flat, and rushed through natural applause points. As the plodding session ground on, you could feel the Jobs mana draining from Bezos’ body. When he reached the section discussing the Fire Phone’s rubber frame, the spirit force had already spiraled off the stage and headed back to the afterworld. When Bezos was finally done, everyone felt relieved.
What happens when you fail to study the history of one of high-tech’s legendary positioning
If you had studied the history of WordStar vs. WordStar 2000 in Stupidity's first two edition, the Start button hadn’t disappeared; it had mutated into a new interface which bore little resemblance to the desktop metaphor that had fronted Windows since 1995. In short, 28 years after the introduction of WordStar 2000, Microsoft had created two new products Were called Windows 8.Cost the same.Possessed overlapping functionality.Didn’t look like each other.Only they had done MicroPro one better and recreated our positioning catastrophe in a single product . And has had happened with WordStar and WordStar 2000, fire and ruin rained down on Redmond and Windows 8.
682 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 12, 2022
6 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 16, 2022
original book was full of wisdom, later version too much ranting
I read the first edition of this book and it was funny, mocking the business book ‘In Search of Excellence’.
It contained good advice backed up by lengthy experience in the hi tech business.
The revised chapters are mostly rants about getting banned from LinkedIn and Amazon’s predatory pricing. He has some good points, but lack the humour of earlier versions and basically come across as Rants.
Still good but extra material is negative.
I read the first edition of this book and it was funny, mocking the business book ‘In Search of Excellence’.
It contained good advice backed up by lengthy experience in the hi tech business.
The revised chapters are mostly rants about getting banned from LinkedIn and Amazon’s predatory pricing. He has some good points, but lack the humour of earlier versions and basically come across as Rants.
Still good but extra material is negative.
April 28, 2025
The book covers the nostalgic days of computing in the 80s and 90s, the attack of Amazon on publishers and authors and, finally, it turns strongly political, covering the witch hunt on the right on social networks. It is sort of incoherent as it aims at being a business book but I would rather classify it as a history book. The book needs to be proofread as it is full of typos. Nonetheless, I enjoyed reading it, the book is highly informative, with some astounding revelations well hidden within its pages. It is a pleasure to read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews