Another Quiet Day

The Myth of the Fatal Mistake

"Let's make a calendar!"

One thing that has become abundantly clear during this recent Kiko hubbub is that all of the commenters are scrambling to find that most elusive of items:

The fatal mistake that destroyed Kiko!

However, that is about as sensible as trying to figure out what the fatal mistake of a bastard so fat that he'd make a walrus feel anorexic was after he's jumped out of a window on the eighteenth floor of a second-rate, almost bankrupt technology consultancy.

You have people analysing the minute details of all of the jumper's life except for the salient, one important decision.

The fat bastard jumped!

There was no fatal mistake that led to the demise of Kiko. They didn't get stomped by google. They didn't get blind-sided by 30 Boxes.

"Let's make a calendar!"

They released an ill-conceived, bad product.

The only crowd that can release a product as badly thought out as a straight port of a calendar-app to the web are the biggies with money.

(Caveat: Most of the people I'm linking to here are smart and to the point. They're just looking in the wrong direction IMO.)

Update: Stowe Boyd demonstrates his smarts in his analysis of the situation.

Ignore me and listen to him.

Second Update: Scott Karp takes apart the "google is going to stomp us" argument.

Baldur Bjarnason – 19/8/06