, March 30, 2016
Daily Bafflements
The offices bear a striking resemblance to the Montessori preschool that my kids attended. / Picjumbo
• Oh, you thought Silicon Valley proper was the hub for tech-driven psychosis? Meet HubSpot, a Cambridge-based company that specializes in inbound marketing, where math, logic, and a healthy dose of anti-capitalism have all been thrown out the door in favor of . . . candy and spam-that-isn’t-spam? Dan Lyons, a former employee and editor at Newsweek, writes,
The ideal HubSpotter is someone who exhibits a quality known as GSD, which stands for “get shit done.” This is used as an adjective, as in “Courtney is always in super-GSD mode.” The people who lead customer training seminars are called inbound marketing professors and belong to the faculty at HubSpot Academy. Our software is magical, such that when people use it—wait for it—one plus one equals three. Halligan and Dharmesh first introduced this alchemical concept at HubSpot’s annual customer conference, with a huge slide behind them that said “1 + 1 = 3.” Since then it has become an actual slogan at the company. People use the concept of one plus one equals three as a prism through which to evaluate new ideas. One day Spinner, the woman who runs PR, tells me, “I like that idea, but I’m not sure that it’s one-plus-one-equals-three enough.”
Full disclosure: we use HubSpot, although not in the borderline spammy way it’s intended to be used. Still, oy vey.
• Baffler founding editor Thomas Frank graces the pages of TomDispatch with another excerpt from his latest book, Listen Liberal—this time on “innovation liberalism” in Boston. Speaking of America’s best city, did we mention Frank will be speaking at First Parish Church in Harvard Square on April 8?
• Capitalism can occasionally have its moments. Here’s one: an Ohio businessman and avid horror movie watcher has breathed new life into the Last Chance gas station featured in the low-budget 1974 slasher movie, Texas Chainsaw Massacre.