The Four

What Hacker News says

1. specialistJul 2018
   McDonald's saw (see?) themselves as a real estate company.

   The problem with this article, the drivel, is projecting nonsensical narratives onto these entities.

   So while Google is certainly not a customer facing data services company, I still have no idea how they see themselves. Which would be useful information.

   A better (actionable) external narrative is Scott Galloway's The Four. I have no idea if Galloway's analysis is closer to the mark. But at least it's self-consistent. [http://www.thefourbook.com]

   Show morethread
2. reddaloFeb 2025
   I don't know if it has a name, but Scott Galloway's "The Four" describes this phenomenon as the reason why people love their Apple phones and computers so much; they're overpriced products, so they must love them in order not to feel like "idiots".
   thread
3. mdanger007Feb 2024
   Reading The Four by Scott Galloway, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon were dominating the market 7 years ago generating 2.3 trillion in wealth. They're worth double that now.

   The Four, especially with its AI, is going to control the market in ways that will have a deep impact on government and society.

   thread
4. bigtonesFeb 2018
   Yes, L2 Inc research (see their YouTube channel) and the book "The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google" by Scott Galloway.
   thread
5. chriswittsJan 2018
   Just finished in the last week:

   - What a wonderful world by Marcus Chown

   - 47 Ronin by Joan D. Vinge

   - Practical Monitoring by Mike Julian

   Currently reading:

   - The Four by Scott Galloway

   - The Art of Capacity Planning 2nd Edition by Arun Kejariwal, John Allspaw

   Show morethread
6. chrisvalleybayNov 2017
   Paraphrasing from the book The Four by Scott Galloway: Apple is a company that has positioned itself as a luxury brand. Apple is about sex and signalling. Carrying an Apple phone signals more status than if you were to carry an Android phone, since it is more expensive, just like with other luxury items. But in addition to attaining this status, it has done something that many other luxury brands have not: low production costs in addition to premium pricing. Now, no other techbrand is a luxury brand, which puts Apple in its own league. Either it's going to take a very long time to unseat Apple, or they need to miss a big new market, that they didn't see coming. Now, most of us believe AR/VR and AI to be the next market, if they aren't able to get to market fast enough with products that we have come to expect from Apple, this can be an issue.

   I recommend reading the book by Scott Galloway, it is insightful.

   Show morethread