40 harsh truths every marketer needs to hear 💊

Hard won lessons from 10+ years in marketing

1. Every marketer should be familiar with Wikipedia’s “List of Internet phenomena”. You can’t influence the internet if you don’t understand internet culture.

2. Trust is the new moat. Vibe coding lets anyone ship an app in 3 hours. The only real separator between serious companies and weekend projects is brand and reputation. This will only get more true in 2027-2028.

3. Pricing is marketing. If you charge too little, people assume your product is bad.

4. Oracle shipped their first product as “Version 2”. There was never a Version 1. Larry Ellison knew no one trusts a first draft. Perception of maturity is real. Position every launch as already-battle-tested.

5. The best marketers I know spend more time studying psychology than studying marketing. Cialdini is a good place to start.