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Build an Insanely Great Web Service (readwriteweb.com)
24 points by pierrefar on June 26, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 6 comments



Can we throw "insanely great" into the scrap heap with ninja, rock star, and the like?

To my mind, something that was "insanely great" would mean that it's great beyond being rational, which most likely would mean that you got a wonderful product at really cheap prices. It's not irrational to make really high quality stuff if you're charging appropriately for it, so the crazy part would probably come from pricing.


It's interesting that the web 2.0 crowd have created their own system of buzzword compliance, all the while rejecting the enterprise development version of the same thing. Unfortunately there's a pattern here. We'll surely get past the Age of Unnecessary Superlatives, but it will probably just be replaced with something equally as inane.


"Insanely great" is something that Steve Jobs used to say. It became a Mac ad campaign [1] and a book was written with that title [2]; I haven't read it.

[1] http://robert.accettura.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/20090...

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Insanely-Great-Macintosh-Computer-Ever... and a book

I think this phrase is a little piece of computing history. I, for one, would like to see it make a return. I think it implies a product with a powerful emotional connection to its users. Shooting for insanely great is something that everyone should do with their products.


You'll be asking for

..:: "Xxxxx that doesn't Suck" ::..

to be binned next.


"Doesn't suck" has something nicely understated about it. It doesn't sound like something the "marketroids" would ever really exploit. Insanely great just sounds stupid. Do they give you electroshock therapy for making one too many insanely great products?


"Hype: you're doing it wrong."




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