A Twitter reply that really resonated with me: "Marketing is a zero sum game. You only compete against the marketing of your competition. If no one would market, the result would be pretty much the same. You kind of need it, but it doesn't realy CREATE value." (twitter.com/ViconDev/status/15516836784…) Marketing creates "value" for the people doing the marketing. It doesn't create value for the intended consumers. At best they buy something they hadn't heard of and hadn't realized they wanted/needed. At worst, you're manipulating people into giving you cash in exchange for something they wouldn't have otherwise bought. A lot of the takes I see here are from the perspective of the company, and I absolutely agree that if you run a company, you need marketing if you're going to compete. It's just a shame it has to be that way. If marketing (and especially advertising) didn't exist, we'd have the same situation we have now, except that people wouldn't pointlessly stretch their finances to buy things they don't need.

"I remember feeling derisive about marketing as a young techie — it wasn’t creating the value. Nowadays, I often marvel at how much amazing value is present that people just don’t know about. If only there was a way to bring it to their attention…" - John Carmack twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/155158…