[peter_vukovic]

The post is a clever implementation of the clickbait technique with a sole aim of bringing more startup CEOs and executives to visit Slab’s website and discover their product in the process. The arguments presented in the article are weak and show no proof of actual trust erosion as a result of Zuckerberg’s writing style, only a set of arbitrary conclusions on how certain words and phrases may appear to some people. This hardly belongs on HN.

[Spooky23]

It's definitely a blog that exists to highlight the product. I don't think that's a problem.

But with respect to Zuck, you don't need very sophisticated arguments. The PR team's process is very simple and the article captures it well. It boils down to a mad lib style narrative that consists of: "<Demonstration that I am Smart><Lofty Mission><"We" do stuff (key item: "I"==vision for a better world, "We"==action)><Sorry><Not Sorry><Commitment/Point of Pride/Forward Looking Vision>"

End of the day, discerning readers spot nonsense speak, cynical readers perceive the opposite of whatever is being said/implied, and casual readers get a hit of positive perception that FB wants to project. Every company and every politician does it, but Zuckerberg's formula has a unique tone that stands out more.

[gist]

Agree. Not even sure in any way how it matters to FB what anyone who writes about FB thinks about how Zuckerberg communicates or why he says what he does. 'Your Uncle' and 'Your Sister' who use facebook don't care or read what Zuckerberg says. They are looking for pictures on what the family and friends are doing.

Likewise Zuckerberg's goal is to simply appeal to care and the actual words that he uses (like any PR release) just need to check off a box of respect in some way. No more and no less.

Most fun part of the writing is when it's is mentioned that Zuckerberg studied and was a fan as a student at Harvard 'the classics'. Sure that which happened 15 years ago is enough to make you an expert in a way to actually effectively use that type of information.

[paulcole]

> The post is a clever implementation of the clickbait technique with a sole aim of bringing more startup CEOs and executives to visit Slab’s website

This is true of the majority of articles on HN or any other social media site for that matter. It's called marketing.

[carbocation]

Paul Graham has referred to ads like this as "submarines."

http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

[CPLX]

No, he didn't.

He's talking about articles in editorial media that were pitched by publicists.

This is a content marketing article published by the company itself to promote themselves.

Also nobody on the planet calls stories with marketing value submarines, except the legions of HN posters compelled to post this link every day or two for some reason.

[PhasmaFelis]

> Also nobody on the planet calls stories with marketing value submarines, except the legions of HN posters compelled to post this link every day or two for some reason.

This seems like a silly argument even if the article in question is not actually a submarine.