[ivancdg]

This was a witty comment (the end made me chuckle)...but flippant.

Ultimately it is not very helpful: it does not address the content of the original article, which is excellent.

It is easy to fall into the trap of being so skeptical of sales writing as to automatically discount it. We see a lot of that here on HN which I find to be an unfortunate knee-jerk reaction.

Sales is a skill. During a layover I bought a book on the 'business' shelf of a UK airport. The book had tons of the warning signs of #2 above. I was extremely skeptical. It was called 'Selling to Win' by Richard Denny. It had the cheesiest cover you can imagine (think citrus green with pink).

But the things I learned in that book allowed me to get to 'ramen profitability' in my field. I was ahead of the crowd 6 months later, largely thanks to the techniques in that book.

Had I dismissed the book, I'd still be making fun of the cover and complaining about not having enough work.