Quote to Note: Modern Truisms
October 18, 2011
I don’t plan on getting back on the rubber chicken circuit, but a good quote is often useful. I noted one in the hard copy newspaper of the faltering New York Times. The story with the quote was “A Series of Red Flags for Financial Planning Concern,” page B5 of the Personal Business section in the Business Section of the October 15, New York Times. I love that metadata. Don’t you?
Here’s the quote attributed to Dan Candura, “a financial planner,” whose photograph accompanies the article. Mr. Candura does not have the cheerful demeanor of a character on the defunct TV show “Friends” in my opinion. He allegedly said:
It’s easier to sell the bad stuff than the good stuff.
I must say that when I read the quote I thought about search and content processing marketers, azure chip consultants flogging studies, and assorted unemployed English teachers, failed Webmasters, and political science majors turned “search expert.”
What is the “bad stuff”. Well, if I understand the New York Times’ write up, the “bad stuff” are investments that are too good to be true. In search and content processing, the “bad stuff” are systems which contain cost spikes like those children’s toys which shoot a crazy doll in one’s face without warning.
The only problem, of course, is that the search bad stuff does not end with cost spikes. Other “benefits” of selling search and content processing systems include:
- Content adaptors which don’t work as advertised or have to be customized to handle a specific client situation
- Technical issues associated with updating indexes in “real time”, a bogus concept in my experience
- The need for “eternal engineering support.” The idea is that the license gets the consultants in the door. The consultants never leave, however.
A pop and tune from the Jack in the Box lovers to Mr. Candura, who was quite “candid”.
Stephen E Arnold, October 18, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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