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John
read and liked
David's
review of The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual:
"I have a love/hate relationship with this book. On one hand I am a believer in the basic messages of the book. Corporations are shells, corporate speak is a joke, people need to be themselves and the web provides a platform to do so on a scale never ...more
I have a love/hate relationship with this book. On one hand I am a believer in the basic messages of the book. Corporations are shells, corporate speak is a joke, people need to be themselves and the web provides a platform to do so on a scale never before available.
On the other hand the writing is arrogant. It comes off as we know better than the world and people who like to use spell-check or make decisions are sheep. The following paragraph I read while on a plane. I wanted to absolutely scream after reading it but thought better as that may have put me in Guantanamo.
Sometimes we run from our fallibility by being decisive. But doubt is the natural human state, and decisiveness -- more addictive than anything you might shoot into your veins -- is often based on a superstitious belief in the magic of action.
That paragraph and this one
If you need to hear how the professional voice sounds, dig out any memo you wrote four years ago and compare it to how you’d write an e-mail about it now. A professional memo obeys implicit rules such as one page is best, no jokes, admit no weakness, spellcheck it carefully, and send it to as few people as possible.
Both of these are examples of the tone of the book. Either you are flying by the seat of your pants, going against the corporate grain or you are sheep. I don't buy it and it made this book difficult on many levels. Its has a forced coolness, an arrogant take that is very hard to like even if you believe in the message.
That being said I would recommend you read the book because it will remind you that you are human and to act like one. There are some very good messages as well. Unfortunately the voice of the messenger is pretty damn irritating.
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