Haters Gonna Hate (but not Mate)
By: Mr. Money Mustache
In this blog post, Mr. Money Mustache reflects on the fact that his blog was featured in the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch. He talks about all the critical (negative) comments he received about his blog, and as a result he goes on to ask the question, "Why do people keep complaining?" He announces that the answer lies within the fact that, "the "Hater" instinct is just another one of our predictably irrational strategies, originally based on mating success." He uses evidence from ancient times to provide support for his theory that people complain because of its original use, which was used to obtain a mate.
One of the things that MMM did very well in this blog post was back himself up. He starts his argument for other peoples' complaints about his blog by researching what causes people to complain. He learns from a book that, "By demonstrating the courage to criticize the leader (of the tribe), the Haters lifted themselves from the bottom of the hierarchy, and hopefully gained the respect of at least one reproductive partner." He's very good at using evidence to support his claims in this post. That's one of his strengths in my mind.
He also does a great job of taking in all of the complaints about his blog, and using them to his advantage. He states that," You can acknowledge that your feelings are valid, because that strategy did work in prehistoric times. But you need to repackage that energy into something that works for you today, where opportunities are not controlled by "them", they are controlled by you." By saying this, he wants people to know that the act of hating is a thing of the past. He also is clever, because to close out the post he says, "You'll know you have made it when you get your own first batch of dedicated haters." It's clever because he knows (MMM) that in a way he has made it, and having made it, he wants to pass on this knowledge on to everyone about haters. This is his second strength.
All in all, I really enjoyed reading this post because I agreed with what he was saying about complainers. I thought his writing style made it easier to read his subject matter as well. In this post, he only swore two times, but I can see where people might take his language as being childish and unprofessional. I think the reason that he is so popular is because of the fact that he's not afraid to speak his mind about certain issues. He uses his language in a way that speaks his personality, and I like that a lot. That's why I think he might be so popular. I feel like people would take offense to his swearing, but other than that, I think he has a lot of important things to say! He goes about writing his posts with a different point of view in mind, and that sticks out to me the most. I really enjoyed this blog, and I think in the future I might look it over again! I say this because I like his point of view on certain topics.
I enjoyed reading your review. I really like the way you explained the blog post that you chose, and I agree with MMM comments towards the complaints on his blog. I also agree that he does have a different writing style and POV when it comes to his writing. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on this one, he makes good points and he makes it easy for others to understand the material he's writing about.
ReplyDelete" You can acknowledge that your feelings are valid, because that strategy did work in prehistoric times. But you need to repackage that energy into something that works for you today, where opportunities are not controlled by "them". This is a wonderful point, I like to think that if it worked back in the old days that it should work in our culture as well, but times have changed and so has the strategy, I like how he points that out. Good read!
Great job! My favorite part of this post is when you said "He also does a great job of taking in all of the complaints about his blog, and using them to his advantage. He states that," You can acknowledge that your feelings are valid, because that strategy did work in prehistoric times. But you need to repackage that energy into something that works for you today, where opportunities are not controlled by "them", they are controlled by you." This is a great strength he shows when he embraces the haters.
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