A crash is when your competitor's program dies. When your program dies, it is an 'idiosyncrasy'.
Interpretation
The quote humorously distinguishes between failures in competitors' software and one's own, portraying a light-hearted view of setbacks.
Guy Kawasaki's quote plays on the perception of failure in a competitive environment. It highlights how we often downplay our own software issues while magnifying the failures of others, using the term 'idiosyncrasy' to suggest that our failures are quirky or unique rather than serious, thereby softening the blow of criticism and inviting a chuckle at the nature of competition in technology.
In practice
During a tech conference, while discussing software challenges, one could quote this to lighten the mood.
Here's what you should say [to an investor]: 'this is what my company does' It's that simple. What you're trying to do is get potential investors to fantasize about how your product or service will make a boatload of money. They can't fantasize if they don't know what you do.
Knowledge is great. Competence is great. But the combination of both encourages people to trust you and increases your powers of enchantment. And in this world, the combination is a breath of fresh air.
At the end of my life, is it better to say that I empowered people to make great stuff, or that I died with a net worth of $10 billion? Obviously I'm picking the former, although I would not mind both.
Enchantment is the purest form of sales. Enchantment is all about changing people's hearts, minds and actions because you provide them a vision or a way to do things better. The difference between enchantment and simple sales is that with enchantment you have the other person's best interests at heart, too.
• People deserve a break. The stressed and unorganized person who doesn’t have the same priorities as you may be dealing with an autistic child, abusive spouse, fading parents, or cancer. Don’t judge people until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. Give them a break instead.
You say: "I'm a blue sky thinker." Investor thinks: "You have no business model, and you don't know how to ship."
You can tell how boring a person is by the lack of fear in their eyes when someone is flipping through photos on their phone.
Only laughter can blow [a colossal humbug] to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
I find that people find a way out of misery through humor and it's humor that's often unacceptable to people who are not in quite such a state of misery.
I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark.
I certainly don't delude myself that there aren't certainly more important things to do in life than make people laugh, but I can't imagine anything that would bring me more joy.
Surveys show that the #1 fear of Americans is public speaking. #2 is death. That means that at a funeral, the average American would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.
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