Name: Different
ISBN: 9780307460851

Different

Why trying to be the best... competing like crazy... makes you mediocreEvery few years a book--through a combination of the author's unique voice, storytelling ability, wit, and insight--simply breaks the mold. Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods is one example. Richard Feynman's "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" is another.Now comes Youngme Moon's Different, a book for "people who don't read business books." Actually, it's more like a personal conversation with a friend who has thought deeply about how the world works... and who gets you to see that world in a completely new light. If there is one strain of conventional wisdom pervading every company in every industry, it's the absolute importance of "competing like crazy." Youngme Moon's message is simply "Get off this treadmill that's taking you nowhere. Going tit for tat and adding features, augmentations, and gimmicks to beat the competition has the perverse result of making you like everyone else." Different provides a highly original perspective on what it means to offer something that is meaningfully different--different in a manner that is both fundamental and comprehensive. Youngme Moon identifies the outliers, the mavericks, the iconoclasts--the players who have thoughtfully rejected orthodoxy in favor of an approach that is more adventurous. Some are even "hostile," almost daring you to buy what they are selling. The MINI Cooper was launched with fearless abandon: "Worried that this car is too small? Look here.

What Hacker News says

vmurthyAug 2019

There's a wonderful book out there called "Different" by Professor Youngme Moon [1] which details a few cases like what you said. Her book is about how companies can be different

One case that comes to mind is Ikea with this DIY approach. Is it the most convenient way to buy furniture? Not really given the work you need to do. Prof Moon argues that this paradoxically creates a stickiness to the brand because you have invested something (time and effort).

Another one is the "In-n-out" burger joint(Forgive me if I have gotten the name wrong). Apparently, it takes a full 15-20 minutes to get a burger here but it is thriving in-spite of this difficulty because people know they're not getting some frozen processed food.

[1]https://www.amazon.in/Different-Escaping-Competitive-Youngme...

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vmMay 2018

Different [1] is one of my favorite books on how to find a unique niche in crowded markets. It is written by a (brilliant) marketing professor but is useful for product strategy. Also see Blue Ocean Strategy [2] on this topic.

Essential had neither of these approaches.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Different-Escaping-Competitive-Youngm... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Ocean-Strategy-Expanded-Uncontes...

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nickgrosvenorMar 2015

I really like the book Different by Youngme Moon.

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nateJan 2013

Very true. And vice versa is actually a pretty neat idea. Youngme Moon who I mention in the article has a book called Different which I highly recommend. She's got a bit in there about differentiating yourself by making it insanely easy for people to leave your service. Most folks make it hard to even find a cancel link (I know I've been guilty of this), let alone make it super easy to move their data out into a competitor.

It's on my priority list actually for some future projects to make it super easy to quit and migrate data out of my stuff to a competitor.

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farkasSep 2011

Yep - I don't think that I said that particularly eloquently. And it was related to a point (that I can't remember) that had been brought up earlier in the conference.

But my overarching belief about product design: - build stuff you are passionate about because you use it - listen to customers, but don't do what they say

The reason that products all start to look the same is that customer's only experience of 'better' is a competitors product. That's why you have Audi's advertising about their safety record, and Volkswagon's advertising about their performance features.

A great read on this topic is Youngme Moon's book different: http://www.amazon.com/Different-Escaping-Competitive-Youngme...

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loumfDec 2010

"Different" by Youngme Moon. This book was given out at the Business of Software 2010 conference, and she also spoke there. It's basically a call to arms for meaningful differentiation with organized business case studies of companies that have achieved it.

http://www.amazon.com/Different-Escaping-Competitive-Youngme...

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