While I agree that the article is a bit specious, I think there is a deeper argument to be made about Springstein's specific kind of lyrics.
As mentioned in the article, his lyrics are about blue-collar workers and the associated struggles and life. This was probably an under-served / poorly talked about community when he was on the rise. It's just a case of focussing on an under-served market. I'm not sure of Springsteins' background, but if he came from a blue-collar background, then he would have known his community / market really well.
So I guess the lesson is, serve an under-served market with talent that's good enough. It helps if you, yourself, are the customer :)
I think the "looking back on your life" happens in advance as well.
My father has stage 4 cancer, and while he is undergoing treatment and we have hope, he is now confronted with the possibility of death. I've found him recounting stories of his childhood and younger days a lot more. I've never asked him about his dreams, but clearly the possibility of death has changed something fundamental where he's looking back a lot more and thinking about his parents / grandparents and others who've passed on.
`Equity language doesn’t fool anyone who lives with real afflictions. It’s meant to spare only the feelings of those who use it.`
This perfectly describes what's going on. Rather than working on the actual problem, the people gunning for purifying language are yak shaving. I think we all recognise the good intentions, but how do we convince the people with good intentions that they're solving the wrong problem? Sounds like the classic case of a startup not talking to their customers :)
I've been on Hacker News for several years now, and I'm often surprised about the amount of content on stuttering that ends up on the front page. Being a stutterer myself, I find it nice that the community upvotes such content.
On a separate note, I wonder how many stutterers end up as software engineers or similar technology related work and as a corollary, how many people on Hacker News are stutterers. It would make sense that there would be quite a few; it's a vocation similar to writing, with a large amount of time spent not talking. It's also lucky that software engineering has an outsized impact in this day and age, so stutterers might actually do quite well!
Super interesting analysis of the trucking market.
A couple of questions would be:
* At what speed is the industry going to embrace self-driving / "augmented driving" in trucks? I'd imagine a driver would still be required at the wheel in case of emergencies for the foreseeable future. What new skills would truckers have to learn?
* Given the environmental impact of trucking (self-driving or not), what are some interesting propositions that climate change startups could come up with? Do any players in the value chain even care about climate impact? Clearly, given the cut-throat nature of the business, there would necessarily need to be a revenue impact otherwise no one is going to use the proposition.
* I find the insurance part more interesting that the factoring part. Given the generally poor service quality of insurance companies, I'm wondering if there is a possibility of a "Lemonade" like insurance company in this space? Lemonade started out as a home insurer I believe. What is the killer proposition for an insurance company in this space?
Lots more thoughts come to mind. Again, great writeup, thanks!
What are the chances that Google starts charging $2/month (maybe lower in certain markets) for Gmail? I imagine there would be plenty of takers. Maybe not 2 billion takers, but quite a few.
I am a stammerer, so I have some experience with social anxiety and fumbling when asked impromptu questions in front of an audience.
In a situation such as what you're describing, and where I couldn't avoid answering, what ended up happening with me was that I would want to get the answer over with as quickly as possible. And that often resulted in fumbling, not thinking things through and generally gibberish coming out of my mouth.
The key for me was to slow things down. I know it sounds simple, but avoid rushing your response. Just take a beat. Make the answer deliberate, and make your brain think about the question being asked. When my brain started working on the problem of "answering the question", I found my anxiety was replaced by eagerness to answer the question. It also did wonders for my stammering, because when talking deliberately about something I was an expert in, the confidence comes naturally.
That's a good point. It's like how writing a good email is pretty essential these days, and people might lose out these days because of poor "online" communication
I'd just like to say that Thomas Edison's handwriting in his letter is absolutely beautiful. It almost looks like it's been typed out on a computer using a funky font.
It's funny how the handwriting of almost everyone I know is quite bad these days. My own is almost illegible! I wonder what everyone thinks about this general degradation in penmanship? I guess it's not really needed in this day and age, but there's something beautiful about nice handwriting on paper.
As mentioned in the article, his lyrics are about blue-collar workers and the associated struggles and life. This was probably an under-served / poorly talked about community when he was on the rise. It's just a case of focussing on an under-served market. I'm not sure of Springsteins' background, but if he came from a blue-collar background, then he would have known his community / market really well.
So I guess the lesson is, serve an under-served market with talent that's good enough. It helps if you, yourself, are the customer :)