The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]


It’s Not A Community, It’s A Clique …

Welcome back.

Did you eat copious amounts of Easter Eggs?

Well, regardless if you did or didn’t, this post is going to make you sick as a dog.

Long ago, when twitter first started, Andy pronounced Twitter, Twatter.

To be fair, in the early days it had a certain charm – like blogs – where there was a real community and it came together to support and encourage those around you.

But now …

Oh boy, now it’s either all out verbal warfare or chancers.

But there’s another group that has started making itself known.

The gurus.

Nothing sums up this group more than this:

Now Gaurav works for Clickup as their Chief Growth Officer … which means he’s no doubt, connected experienced and likely has a lot of things we could all learn from. Which is why I am confused he decided to write such a blatantly ridiculous tweet like the one above.

Yes, the ‘voice’ of Apple is an integral part of the brand, but the way he has phrased his words seems to suggest it’s the voice – not the technology, innovation or distribution – of the brand that has made it worth so much.

But even more bizarrely, he’s also insinuating his tips can help you be worth that much too.

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Now maybe he made a mistake – we all do it, me more than most. However when I checked out his other tweets, they all seemed to exist in this little universe of like-minded, self-appointed gurus all saying the same sort of things.

Here’s a couple of them.

Good marketing can never solve for a bad product.
Bad marketing can never solve for a good product
Balance is the only answer

Or this gem …

Over 3.5 billion tweets are posted each week.
But most people are reading the wrong ones.
Here are the 10 best tweets from the week guaranteed to make you smarter:

The problem with social media is that anyone can be a legend in their own lunchtime.

Where it’s not about the work you’ve done, but the ‘following’ you have gained.

What’s even scarier is I’m seeing more and more agencies going straight to Twitter to hire people as if they’re the only ones that count.

And that scares me for 2 reasons.

1, They’re not. The absolute opposite if anything.
2. It feels ‘profile’ is more important than real work.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure there’s way more great planners, creatives and suits NOT on twitter than there are on it. And while some of those bashing out their 280 characters are ‘proper good’, to think that is the only pool worth searching smacks of either delusion or laziness.

Once upon a time someone said, ‘those who can’t create music, write about it’ .

While that was pretty mean, I can’t help but think the modern equivalent of it would be:

Those who don’t create work, tweet about it.

Not entirely true – and also mean – but maybe something agency recruiters should keep in mind when trawling twitter to find their next twitter-famous hire.


24 Comments so far
Leave a comment

every fucking social shitshow is filled with pretenders, imposters and pricks. why is this news? if you cant do, tweet.

Comment by andy@cynic

You’ve written a pretty good description of SF these days.

Comment by George

Hahaha … I just watched a documentary on a couple earning a million a year in SF say “they really relate to people struggling on low incomes”. And then, in the same breath, they talk about how they could solve it. Insanity.

Comment by Rob

writing about something someone else has done doesnt mean you know shit. remember some of the google books rosenberg told us about? written buy people who wish they could have been there but were never going to be there. thats the only good thing about my short time in nerd valley. it fucks off all the wannabe pricks who wish they could have worked there but were rejected. wankers.

Comment by andy@cynic

What did he call it? Post rationalised observation twice removed?

Something like that.

It’s why I find focus groups so dodgy. Especially focus groups moderated by people who have very little connection to the lives and attitudes of the people they’re interviewing.

Judging commentary through their personal lens of lived experience, not theirs … resulting in views that are relative to the issue they want to understand rather than resonant to it.

Comment by Rob

Focus groups can be very useful. The problem is when the goal isn’t quality, just the ability to tell management they were done.

Comment by George

And you’re assuming that the subjects of the group are telling the truth and/or have givn the matter a second’s thought before they ntered the room.

Comment by John

I see the easter break did you good.

Comment by George

There’s a million Gaurav’s.
And they all mistake association for creation.
I also find it amusing he calls Apple’s tone, “a trick”. Shows he knows even less about marketing than he does technology. Welcome back Rob.

Comment by Pete

I’ve read his thread. A mixture between blindly obvious and wrong. I would be OK with that if he wasn’t feathering his own nest and taking money from others for his “insight and tricks”.

Comment by Bazza

So many of those …

And they charge for this.

That’s not to say some don’t have real value and insight … but I do find it interesting so many use examples others did rather than the stuff they personally created or had a connection to. Surely that’s a red flag?

Again, doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them, but knowledge by osmosis is not the same as knowledge from direct experience and exposure.

But maybe it says how little training is out there for people. Or how desperate individuals are to move up the ladder.

The fact so many people are doing it – and paying for it – shows there’s some major issues that need addressing at all levels.

Comment by Rob

I am sure there are many issues driving this behavior. One of which being unqualified people training unqualified people for profit.

Comment by George

If employers or clients continue to trust these jokers more than people who do real work, but bluff less, then the situation will continue.

Comment by CynicalB1tch

TBWA Shanghai let their CFO/COO, Michael Cheung, go. So Michael had no where else to go but the joint venture TBWA\Hakuhodo where the CEO, Derick Ho, was “too soft” to say no to Michael (and let him go like TBWA).

This finance joker has ZERO agency experience, even in finance in agencies, but he is ambitious and wants to become the next CEO of TBWA!

Go dig around for how people really think about him. If he becomes TBWA’s CEO, then TBWA, and the entire Omnicom Group, will become a laughing stock in the 4As world.

Comment by CynicalB1tch

Moving into deep fakes, pretenders, parasites. In this climate of information overload, people are accepting connection requests on LinkedIn and FB.

Please take care mate.

Comment by Eric Tan

Savage truth. “Those who don’t create work, tweet about it”

Comment by DH

You can normally tell if someone has a lot of time on their hands by how much their fingers are typing stuff into Twitter.

Comment by Marcus

I remember a couple of jokers prepared to hire me on the back of a badly written blog one upon a time…

Comment by Northern

I remember a couple of jokers were prepared to hire me on the basis of a badly written blog once upon a time..

Comment by Northern

I remember a couple of jokers prepared to hire me on the basis of a badly written blog once upon a time..

Comment by northern

they were stupid pricks.

Comment by andy@cynic

Your blog clearly hates me Rob, after refusing to post comments, I wrote the same thing three times, now I look even more foolish than usual

Comment by northern

campbell always gets his fucking revenge. dont you know that by now northern?

Comment by andy@cynic

Fair point only Rob could manipulate me into seeing Queen

Comment by Northern




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