smackfoo.com | I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Seth on dumbing down products:

The thing is, when you dumb stuff down, you know what you get?
Dumb customers.

This is very true — to a point. Sure, one person can be smart, forward thinking, adventurous and a potential zealot for the cause. One person can cope with far more than we might naturally expect.

But a group of people can be dumb, staunchly conservative, quick to assume, easily scared and in some cases, downright dangerous. That may sound like a harsh critique, but I assure you that isn’t the case. It’s part of a group instinct, something that ensures longevity and safety.

And no matter what business or service you provide, some won’t care about the mechanics, or features. They just want product A to fit need B. How that happens is entirely irrelevant.

“Dumbing down” a product or service doesn’t work, Seth is bang on there. However, neither is pitching it with an Einstein-like intellect. Balance the delivery and temper it with an understanding of your target market, or audience.

When you know what customers want and how they think or react as a group, you’ll know how best to deliver.

Anne Zelenka of Web Worker Daily fame asks:

“What’s the best way to handle rudeness online?”

Ignore it.

Lets rewind a moment for context, given Anne has also offered up the following observation:

“While you can learn something from your critics, when criticism tips over into personal insults that’s a good time to turn away.”

I have a special, purpose built receptacle for email that might cross the line from sarcasm into stupidity and abuse. It’s called ‘Trash’. Trash is quite remarkable in that it can make virtually anything magically disappear. One moment it exists, the next, it does not. Once gone, it no longer has any potential to affect otherwise good judgement.

Arguing on the Internet is stupid. If you respond in an attempt to straight-jacket the ignoramus who initially made such comment, you will provide exactly that which is wanted — a reaction. Ignore it and move on.

Emotive, abusive and mentally challenged outbursts are almost always an attention seeking activity. Ignore it and the behaviour will cease, or it’s perpetrator will go elsewhere for their cheap thrills. Call them out and the argument will already be lost.

Jason answers a question on how 37signals perceive the relative importance of formal education:

“What we care about is intelligence, curiosity, passion, character, motivation, taste, intuition, writing skills, and the ability to make smart value judgements.

Which echoes a point that I see re-enforced time-and-time again. Formal education is no substitute for quality experience. How one handles the outside-of-box scenarios can be far more telling of experience and skill set, than smart handling of the day-to-day details alone. Jason continues:

“A few of these qualities may benefit from exposure to higher education, but we feel most of them are better learned through practical experience.”

Indeed I dropped out of tertiary education during my second year, as the material being taught had absolutely no relation to real-world environs and was painfully out-of-date. I then bounced around various IT related jobs (on purpose to an extent) in an attempt to gain valuable experience and exposure that I could utilise in future, more structured roles.

Granted, a degree or doctorate might have opened more doors at the outset, but if the decision makers behind those very doors are looking for dynamic, flexible people with the ability to think laterally and make intuitive and experience based choices — and more often than not, they are — then no amount of education (alone) will solve that need.

"However, if PR folk followed a few steps that I shall propose below, a considerable amount of time and energy could be spared on both ends." — good how-to advice is rare, doubly so regarding blogging, however Paul delivers a great article on the topic.