Some people even whine when I say maybe they wouldn’t like to upgrade. Really.
Here’s what I said in last week’s newsletter:
It’s not for everybody. Now and then I’ll give an extra push here for the Premium edition. This free edition is about half of what I write each week — four stories; the full column generally has eight. The most common response from people who have “finally” upgraded is “I should have done this sooner!” when they realize that they truly do get double the pleasure from the Premium edition.
But who shouldn’t bother upgrading? If you think True is only “funny stories” that don’t speak to the human condition, you might be content with the half dose of the free edition. If you enjoy being on the left side of the bell curve (or don’t know what that means), maybe you should skip it.
But if you enjoy True, if it makes you think and appreciate life more, then the Premium edition is for you. No time? You might think that Premium takes much longer to read, but it’s about the same length as the free edition. How’s that possible when it has double the content? Because there are no outside ads, and there are no pitches for you to upgrade, etc. In other words, it’s more “concentrated” with stories, and has less fluff. Of course you still get the Honorary Unsubscribe, the Bonzer Site of the Week, and you get first dibs on the special items that I make available, not to mention a significant discount on True book publications. And of course, it’s fine to stay on the free distribution too — many Premium subscribers do.
Once you weed out the people I spoke of — plus those who don’t ever read this section of the newsletter (they lose out on a lot of great material!) — who’s left? Frankly, a minority! But it’s an important minority: the “cream of the crop” that does understand what True is really about. And that describes the Premium subscribers. Once they “get it”, they really get it: the first Premium subscriber is still on Premium, from January 1997. And most of those who upgrade renew, usually for two years, adding notes to their renewals like “I wouldn’t THINK of not renewing!” and “I’ll be a subscriber for life — yours or mine, whichever comes first.” What causes such dedication? Well, you won’t really know unless you are one of the select few who decide to give it a try.
Wahhhhh!
Sure enough: hundreds of people unsubscribed in anger, and I got plenty of whining complaints.
Mark in Virginia was one who didn’t whine, but he was quick to write:
There is one [other] small class of people who won’t upgrade to your premium edition: The poor. I would love to upgrade but I can’t. Due to my wife’s disability and me being her caregiver we can’t afford it. For us free — newsletters, computer programs, etc. — is the way to go. Since I can’t pay, even though I would like to, I try to pay for these freebies by spotlighting them in [own] my free newsletter. BTW this is not a gripe. I just want to remind you that some people online wouldn’t be online at all if it wasn’t for free newsletters, free programs, used computers, libraries and free ISPs.
Thanks for not griping, Mark. Mark has been getting True at his current (free access) address for two-and-a-half years. So he knows I have several times in the recent past made it clear that I know not everyone can afford an extra buck a week (or less).
A Stretch for Some
“Just a few dollars a month” sounds like a pittance to most of you, I know, but I also know that even many people who do have Internet access can’t afford that because I’ve been there myself at various times in my life.
Like the time I bought my first new car ever, and then was laid off from my job. Two weeks of unemployment insurance covered the car payment; the next check covered everything else for the rest of the month. Would “just” $50 make a difference? You bet: between making it to the end of the month with enough food — or not.
And I’ve acknowledged this in this space again, and again, and again over the years. Yet plenty of readers chose to be offended by my editorial last week. By the next day 180 people had unsubscribed. By Monday 267 more. By this morning 70 more.
Sure, there are always people dropping off the list — every day. Some just move on, more are switching to a new address (and there’s a corresponding new subscription). But those 517 people were double the usual weekly dropoff — 250+ more than usual.
Not Going to Walk on Eggshells
If I had the time or inclination to read books on marketing and paid attention to never making anyone unhappy, maybe people wouldn’t choose to take offense and would stay.
But you know what? If I wrote like that True would be a very boring publication.
As I’ve also said many times in this space, I want readers who can think; I don’t want readers who can be led by the nose to open their wallet to me whether they can afford it or not. That’s not making the world a better place, and I wouldn’t want to be that sort of publisher.
But when I said the Premium edition “isn’t for everyone,” I meant it. Those who would stomp away mad because I don’t address them specifically every time Just Don’t Get It, and I’d rather they move on rather than upgrade; life’s too short to deal with that kind of person.
But There Are Worse
Here’s another example email that I got this week, from Jude (who didn’t say where he was):
Why I am never going to subscribe for premium and why I am dropping the free subscription: Because there are a few people who just plain can’t afford a paid subscription to anything, and don’t enjoy being ridiculed and insulted in your free publication. No I am not to [sic] stupid to get it, no I am not a moron, I am broke.
Here’s why I think Jude is too stupid to “get it,” and why I do think he’s a moron: no, not even because he consciously chose to be insulted; that doesn’t make someone stupid.
Rather, it’s one word he used: “never.”
He’s “never” going to upgrade because he’s “broke.” With that attitude, he’ll always be broke; he’s not even trying to get out of the hole he’s in. (Unlike Mark, btw, he isn’t using a free Internet access service.) He’d rather whine and stomp his feet than do something about his situation. And that’s exactly the kind of person I was talking about that shouldn’t upgrade.
Yeah, the marketing books would have me take a different tack here, but I don’t care, even though I know that some segment will be offended by what I’m saying now, and will unsubscribe in trembling rage over it.
Clear Concept
I’m not here to make every last buck possible, I’m here to make an honest buck by saying what I really think, just like this. I’m coming up on my 12th year of doing that as my full-time job, so clearly I’m doing something right.
Can’t afford to upgrade? No problem: stay on the free distribution for as long as you’d like.
Want to help in other ways? Spread the word, like Mark does: invite others to check True out; it’s written by a guy who refuses to be bought, preferring a business model of letting his “cream of the crop” readers support his work by upgrading their subscriptions to get more of that hard work.
Have a web site? A link would be lovely, and thanks. I even have a cool free service for you that allows you to put a True story on your site that automatically changes every day: True-a-Day.
Does This Make Sense to You?
If you “get it” and can afford it, I’d appreciate your support too, making you 100 times more useful in this world than people like Jude who can only whine — and refuse to read something he enjoyed for many months (for free!) because (wahhhh!) it reminded him of how freaking lazy he is.
I make upgrading as painless as humanly possible, taking credit cards, Paypal (with “one-click” access and automatic renewals available), even mail order. If you can’t afford it, no problem: maybe you’ll be able to later. Either way, I thank you for reading.
Let’s Review
True is a news and thus social commentary column; it uses news items about “dumb people doing dumb things” as the vehicle for that.
To say it with fewer words: True is about laughing at the stupid things people do so that we can learn from them.
Yet some who have been reading it for years don’t seem to get that; they think I’m “upset” at people who protest. No, I make fun of them.
They think I need to “watch my blood pressure.” What, in this job? I get to laugh for a living! I say what I think in order to spark thought.
So many thought I was off my rocker for challenging people so much that they unsubscribed. Not even!
If people are so scared of the opinions expressed in a free newsletter that they flee in terror, they’re not the kind of people that I really want reading it, are they? It’s simply my way of weeding out the true morons so the vast majority who are left make the reader pool that much more “the cream of the crop.”
The Best Reader: the Ones that Stay
In other words, I challenge my readers on purpose — and it works. But even more than that, those who truly get it are very entertained by such letters and my responses. And that’s True’s Number One Mission. Here’s one who grasped it instantly, Doc in Mexico:
First, Randy, I’d like to seize this opportunity to thank Jude for freeing up some space for someone else. Then, I’d like to congratulate you on thinning the crop a bit (by 517, at least SOME of whom were probably dead-heads). The folks that can’t grasp the concept of thought-provoking journalism are folks that are in no great danger of having any original thoughts provoked! I, for one, don’t want you to change your style one bit. Even when I disagree, I find that considering your position at LEAST makes me see that another point of view may have some merit.
Patrick in Missouri was the most succinct. He upgraded and appended this note to his order: “I’ve been wanting this for years, so here’s a present to me. Thanks for making me think — that’s a Real present.”
To join Doc and Patrick in the ranks of the Premium edition readers, please upgrade. It really does help to make the publication possible.
There are more great thoughts in the Comments section below.
The prices on this page were updated to fit 2021 levels.
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This page is an example of my style of “Thought-Provoking Entertainment”. This is True is an email newsletter that uses “weird news” as a vehicle to explore the human condition in an entertaining way. If that sounds good, click here to open a subscribe form.
To really support This is True, you’re invited to sign up for a subscription to the much-expanded “Premium” edition:
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A: To support the publication to help it thrive and stay online: this kind of support means less future need for price increases (and smaller increases when they do happen), which enables more people to upgrade. This option was requested by existing Premium subscribers.
I think that Mark and Jude have both gotten their terminologies reversed. Broke is an immediate state of financial difficulty, while Poor is a state of mind.
It seems to me that Mark, while saying that he is poor, is actually quite rich in the bigger things in life. He is rich in his love and commitment to his disabled wife, rich in his ability to access free services, rich in being able to get his point across succinctly — all of which put him ahead of those who either lack those traits or worse, those who have abilities but refuse to use them.
Jude, on the other hand, appears to be poor; he seems not only to lack Mark’s qualities, but appears to have in their stead a fair amount of negativity.
I can’t believe that some people were actually offended by what you had to say in your last newsletter. I understood from the beginning that it wasn’t about calling your readers idiots, but rather to encourage new subscriptions and to praise those who actually do ‘get it’, and that’s saying something since this is coming from a 16-year-old. I’d think adults would be much more rational than some high schooler, but I guess some aren’t.
Life would be incredibly boring without this weekly newsletter to interrupt the monotony of homework and school. I always look forward to the day I get this in my inbox, because I know I can expect at the least something to think about, and maybe even get a couple of laughs along the way. I don’t see why some people would want to give that up, all over some imaginary insult.
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See? Even “some 16-year-old high schooler” gets it. Happy to have you out there, Christy. -rc
For more years than I care to acknowledge and all too often, I had been a whiner, indefensibly defending my failures or hurt feelings rather than learning something from the experience.
It wasn’t until not long ago I realized I had to get off that treadmill before making any real progress. I have found your True feature to be a valuable weapon in my war against my own ignorance. Most enlightening are your responses to readers’ comments and reactions to the stories or your editorials.
The blatantly idiotic rants aside, at times I find myself agreeing with, at least to some extent, the arguments made by the reader. That is, until I read your response. And while I may not totally agree with either side, it always provokes an analytical response on my part once I get past my ingrained, defensive whine mode. I find myself attempting to anticipate your response, and while I have a long way to go to achieve that, it certainly does make me think beyond what I ever would have before.
Had my 16 years of formal education included more of this, well, who knows? But it is never too late to learn and I hope I am doing just that. Perhaps the current curriculum of I Deserve to Feel Good No Matter What 101 could be amended with Cut the Crap 201, straight out of the annals of This Is True.
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Thinking is a powerful tool. Knowing that I’ve sparked it in people is truly gratifying. -rc
I have read your comments on those who shouldn’t subscribe to the premium version and wasn’t the least offended. But more importantly, there are any number of your comments that do offend me.
That is why I enjoy This Is True so much. If it never offended me, it would be no more than the pabulum that you can find on millions of Internet sites, not to mention in newspapers, magazines, radio and television everywhere. You can’t write good news or provide good stories without offending somebody.
I don’t know if Jude will always remain poor or is lazy, but his attitude that he will always be poor is obviously a defeatist attitude. If you assume you will lose, you have gone a long way toward losing already. I don’t care how poor I am or will become, I always know I have the chance to change that. No matter how many things go wrong in my life, as long as I am alive I can do better in the future.
If you don’t believe that to be true, you are already dead, they just haven’t thrown the dirt on your body yet.
Randy, you noted you didn’t have time to read marketing books. But it’s rather obvious you DO read a lot. If you’re short on time, then I’ll surmise that you read really interesting stuff. So: what good book have you read lately?
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I have a huge stack of books that I’m trying to get through, a few minutes at a time. Right now, I’m two-thirds through one that is intriguing me very much: it’s about how the Internet is changing the entire world’s economy. As someone using the Internet to reach the world (True is read in nearly every country, after all), getting that Big Picture is very important to me. The book: The World is Flat (A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century) by Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist. But it’s not for everyone: you have to be able to read and think about the implications. 😉 -rc
Once again you have brought to me the sad humor of humanity. And once again I fall off my chair laughing at it all. Other soldiers in the internet cafe just look at me funny and all I can do is recommend your newsletter to them.
With nearly 9 months left to go, each week that I receive another newsletter is another week closer to going home. Thank you Randy for lifting my spirits up when there isn’t much to smile about in this place.
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Thanks, Brad! I’m happy to send a little weekly uplift to quite a few troops in Iraq. I hope you all get home safe and soon. -rc
My favorite response to the above comment, which also ran in the newsletter. It was attached to a gift upgrade order:
OK, Brad: take another stripe out of petty cash!
My Dad has advanced Alzheimer’s and he lives in a nursing home. I used to take books to read to him, but I usually got no emotional response from him while reading to him. Just recently, I read him some of your articles from This is True. He listened and then I heard him make a weird sound, I thought he was choking…. but then I noticed that he had a smile on his face. He really liked the story about the cop using his video camera for close-ups of bikini-clad girls.
Thanks for adding some enjoyment in my Dad’s life. I wouldn’t have ever guessed that true humor would have done it. The nurses are also impressed with his responses.
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So am I — sure beats choking! -rc
Whenever I see you dealing with a possibly controversial subject and a spate of unsubs starts or you start receiving some angry emailing, I rub my hands with glee. It means we will soon see another public display of someone else’s ignorance. Or brilliance.
Either way, it’s fun, interesting and nothing like some thought-provoking ideas to needle one’s own sense of self-righteousness. And most importantly, I live and learn some more 😉
Although I wasn’t born in Kentucky, I’ve lived here most of my life, and Kentuckians do get a bad rap: albeit sometimes with good reason. Sometimes I feel like I am surrounded by rednecks and morons with not a great deal of intelligence to be seen. You’re probably asking yourself why don’t I just move away, and sometimes I have had that very thought. But from reading your newsletter I can see that stupidity abounds everywhere. -LOL-
I don’t recall who first made me aware of your publication, but I would thank them if I could remember. I’ve always admired people who weren’t afraid to say what they thought whether it made them very popular or not. It’s very brave not to care what other people think, or get hung on people who don’t conform to what society expects. I’m 44 now, and sad to say I was over 30 before I gave myself permission to speak and stopped caring what anyone thought about it. It’s very liberating.
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And a lot more fun! -rc
I’m handicapped, too. And I know how a site like This is True can truly brighten your day. Hell, some days it’s the ONLY bright spot. If it’s possible, I would like to buy Mark and his wife an upgrade. Just let me know what I have to do!!
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Thanks, but some other readers already did back in 2006, when this was first published. -rc
(Caution: Long.)
“True is about laughing at stupid people”
So’s a lot of things. (I can show you plenty of web sites that focus on laughing at stupid people. I waste many hours there… no, take that back. It’s not wasted time.)
“I get to laugh for a living!”
Oh you lucky thing. I only get to laugh AT what I do for a living. 🙂
“So many thought I was off my rocker for challenging people so much that they unsubscribed.”
Now, here we find the crux of the matter. In one sense, these people are right; only an idiot destroys his own business through poor customer service. (And there are a lot of idiots doing exactly that. But I digress.) If you were to, for instance, make a real mess of Premium subs, and end up sending renewal notices six months after someone upgrades, or overcharging people, or things like that, then I would expect that people WOULD abandon you, and rightly so. If you accept our money and don’t give what you’ve promised to, I would expect to see ihaterandy.com registered and accepting postings of “Isn’t Randy Cassingham an idiot” by the dozen.
But then there’s a whole different kettle of fish: Offending people by doing precisely what you set out to do. Would you vehemently unsubscribe from “Blonde Joke Of The Day” (I’ve not gone looking, but there probably is one) because, after “X” years, you suddenly realise how offensive the material is? (Hey… if it takes you years to realise that most blonde jokes offend blondes, then you’d probably make a good source of material.) Do you walk out of a theatre because the comedian told a political joke that’s lampooning the party you vote for? (“You can’t tell the difference between a lump on the head and margarine? Leadership of the Conservative Party is yours for the asking!” –Spike Milligan.)
I’ve been a Premium subscriber for some time, even though some of the stories and their taglines annoy me. I’m a Christian, and sometimes there’s a story portraying Christians in a very bad light (usually the story is perfectly accurate, but the write-up and tagline imply that all Christians are like this, which isn’t fair). Have I unsubscribed? Is this my “big whine” post before going and unsubscribing, and cutting myself off from any chance of a response? Not likely. “True” is funny. It’s funny because it pokes fun at stupid people. And there are stupid people everywhere. (Before I offend TOO many people, I’ll insert a caveat: I am myself stupid at times. And when I am, I deserve to be written up and mocked. “That idiot just spent days trying to figure out why his program was crashing, and it was because he’d free’d the same block of memory twice! What an idiot!”) So when one of the stories strikes home a bit, even undeservedly, I just put it down to Randy trying to write about so many areas, and not necessarily understanding them all perfectly (nobody can), and so he paints with too wide a brush occasionally. This, I can handle. Good humour is worth it sometimes.
You know, the weirdest thing about people who “don’t get it” is that there are still such people around. Here’s for some fun stats. Plot a marker on every date that one of these X-whiners-unsubscribed posts goes out, talking about people who don’t get it. Now, for everyone who unsubscribes, count off how many full explanations they’ve received, before they went off the handle because of something you said. There. You’ve just done a whole lot of useless work, but at least you can state the precise “idiot factor” of your unsubscribers! Seriously though, there’ve been several of these since I joined (which isn’t all that long ago). How can someone have been a subscriber for years and then get offended enough to unsub? It doesn’t make sense.
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You’re exactly right: we’re all dumb sometimes. We all do dumb things. That’s why we can all identify with at least some of the stories. A typical response to a really funny story is, “Well, at least I’m not that dumb!” — which is an acknowledgement that, yes, we can be dumb. And that’s OK: that’s human. That said, I don’t know the answer to your ending question. A great example of the genre is the youth pastor who, after months of being a subscriber, suddenly wrote in indignation when he realized TRUE wasn’t a newsletter put out by “a Christian organization”! I summarized some of the stories that he had read during that time which should have given him a clue.
And once he realized his own mistake, did he own up to it and take responsibility for it? Of course not: he blamed me. It led to a great discussion with readers, which is also represented on that page.
Does that mean all youth pastors (or Christians) are as idiotic? Of course not. I would never even imply such a thing, let alone say it. And I challenge you to find where I have. More likely, you are identifying yourself with the story, not me. That’s your clue that you need to think about your own reaction and see if there’s something you need to work on. I’m guessing you’ll find that you do need to work on something: your reaction. Everything going on in your head is under your control, not mine. And if it’s “out of control” it’s because you let it become that way. Yeah, that’s easy to say — I’m human too, and it’s something I need to work on too. But it’s the secret to success as a human, and I’m trying. -rc
Blonde Joke of the Day? Tell me where I can find this! And yes, I am a dumb (formerly) blonde girl.
“Does that mean all youth pastors (or Christians) are as idiotic? Of course not. I would never even imply such a thing, let alone say it. And I challenge you to find where I have.”
No, you’ve not said that specifically. I can’t point to anything, else I would have in the original post. (This is partly a consequence of my own folly in losing most of my archived True issues, though.) It’s not so much that you’ve said it, but that you’ve not not-said it, if you know what I mean; and yes, it’s more than a little my own fault, so I’m not blaming you. It was just an example of a way that your writing could cause offense (or, to be more accurate, a bit of embarrassment when the blow strikes home — even though it’s not really directed at me), but that offense is for the right reasons, and it does NOT lead to whining, unsubscribing (as if my unsubscription really hurts you… especially as the people who do this are usually free subscribers anyway), and other immature behaviour.
Keep it up. The world needs more humour… and ways to separate the idiots from the rest.
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Well no, I don’t really know what you mean. It appears you’re looking for me to say “THIS Christian was an idiot, but we know he’s not like all Christians.” In fact, I have said just that many times — including the section you quoted! — but no one expects me to say that about cops, or truck drivers, or hairdressers, or grocery clerks, or doctors, or school principals. So the thing to ask yourself is, why you’re expecting me to say it about Christians? Especially in the face that I have done so many times; why wasn’t none, or one, or 15 times enough? The “lack” is within yourself, not within my writing. And that’s something to ponder. -rc
Insulting to Christians? I don’t think so. I prefer to think that stupidity and intolerance transcends Christianity, occupation, education or any other boundaries with which we wish to confine it.
But to me, intolerance is worse than stupidity. We have all focused on details so much sometimes that we lose sight of the big picture. We are ALL stupid sometimes. Some of us more often than others.
Intolerance though, is a conscious act. People CHOOSE to get angry, to take offense and bully others. They choose to see with a closed mind for a filter.
My favorite examples of this are your Zero Tolerance stories. I consider those to be a bonus — intolerance AND stupidity, all in one story.
Keep ’em coming. You provide entertainment for those of us willing to listen, and who knows? Maybe if people see themselves, they can learn to laugh instead of tilting at windmills.
Dammit, Randy, you beat me to it. As I was reading about Jude, I’m thinking that he’s a Professional Victim, one of those people who NEEDS problems to complain about in order to give his life validation. (You never hear successful people stomping their feet and complaining; they just go elsewhere if they don’t like it.) But then you summed it up: Attitude. They won’t release their only claim to self-validation.
But while those books about marketing may give some helpful ideas, they still won’t solve such problems. Even the Fortune 100 companies constantly try to outpace lost customers with new ones. Short-term customers are lured in by hype and gimmicks, but long-term customers are kept by consistency and integrity. No, I’m not a marketing expert, but I do get paid by companies to improve their customer service. And if I don’t succeed for improving customer retention, I don’t get paid.
So, just like the joke about the guy trying to buy Polish sausage in a hardware store, some customers you don’t need. If they aren’t actively bringing in revenue, at least they’re not hanging around to provide negative advertising.
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Interesting extension of what I said. And you’re right: we rarely hear whining from successful people. Want to be successful? Stop whining! Start appreciating your gifts, or move on if you’re not getting what you want. Whining doesn’t help, it hinders. Successful people understand that, and don’t waste time with it. -rc
Ah, that HALF logic again. People are so caught up in the concept of TACIT approval. IF you don’t say something against it, then logically you must be silently for it. They don’t stop to consider that it would equally apply to the opposite view; if you don’t say something FOR it, then you must be against it. So, by remaining silent, you are both for AND against whatever the subject is. Now there’s a Dilemma.
But why is it that the most complainers are the ones who are getting it for free? It seems that the ones who pay for something already believe that it has value or they wouldn’t be paying for it in the first place. Yes, the free subscription would be entertaining enough, but I want more! And Groxx gives it even more value.
“So the thing to ask yourself is, why you’re expecting me to say it about Christians?”
Because many Christians (with the help of their leaders) have convinced themselves they are victims, even when they are the dominant religion and run roughshod over everyone else. Not being able to put Christmas displays all over public property is somehow a violation of their rights.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. True is a fun, intelligent read once a week. But it’s not the be all and end all of literature.
I don’t upgrade because as much fun as the free edition is, I don’t think the Premium would be worth it to me. I, like many, try to reduce unessential costs like subscriptions (each of those small monthly fees add up), and there are more vital things for me to spend my money on.
I don’t look for things to be offended by, and get a kick out of people who do. But to see:
“If you think True is only “funny stories” that don’t speak to the human condition, you might be content with the half dose of the free edition. If you enjoy being on the left side of the bell curve (or don’t know what that means), maybe you should skip it.”
Is mildly offensive. I’m not upset; Randy makes many references to his greatness, so it’s not surprising to see him say that sort of thing to people who aren’t “smart” enough to “get” the insightful genius of anything he’s ever written.
If I’m lucky, Randy’ll take offense to one word of what I’ve written and go on a whiny tangent about it.
In the meantime, I’ll keep reading the free True, because I enjoy it, but I won’t be upgrading anytime soon – and it has nothing to do with the above quote.
Oh – everything speaks to the human condition, by virtue of having been written / said by man. It’s nothing special.
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I disagree with your conclusion, and I think people understand what I meant, so it’s not worth the bother to argue it.
I don’t mind if you take offense at the section you quoted; it was meant to challenge people. That’s part of what I do, and I’ve never made a secret of that function (though NO ONE has EVER suggested it was the “be all and end all of literature”!) It appears to me that you see that function, and understand it fully — which pretty much means the comment wasn’t directed at you. -rc
I’m “barely surviving” poor (moneywise), and have been for about 10 years. I would like to say (A) money isn’t everything, (B) Value isn’t only in money or goods and (C) do something about being poor. I went back to school. Attitude, as noted before, is the biggest problem of most people. Thank you, Randy, for such a thought provoking and entertaining part of my life.
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Awesome, Darrell. And you even got everything in the right order! I’ve met a lot of people with money who were very poor (and many people who didn’t have much money, but were very rich), and it’s in part because they also figured out “B”. -rc
I must admit that 24 dollars a year is not much BUT for people in different countries ( New Zealand ) your 24 dollars equal out to 44 of our dollars…which is a lot more than 2 bucks a week…but saying that I pay as I love to hear about the idiots that Randy gets to hear of.
Thanks Randy and keep up the very funny stories
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As of this moment, US$24 is 18 euros, 16 pounds sterling,1,200 Indian rupees, 2,325 yen, and 35,700 Singapore dollars. Therefore, it’s really cheap in Europe, extremely cheap in the UK, fifty times the price in India, and almost 1,500 times the price in Singapore? Of course not. It’s the same price everywhere. $24 is about 3 hours of work (before taxes) for someone who works at McDonald’s here, and even for the federal minimum wage is less than 4 hours of work. I doubt you’re suggesting that someone in Singapore earns about $7/hr also and thus has to work 5,100 hours to earn enough to pay for a subscription. -rc
I do understand the “bell curve” and am in the upper 90 percent of it. I’m still pretty broke like the rest of a lot of your customers, but I am grateful that you are such a generous person for giving us as much as you do. Thank you so very much for all of your hard work. I was also laughing at some of the responses you received. It is a shame that so many of these people jump to conclusions simply because they either have no understanding of what you are trying to convey, or have been so influenced by our “me-me, my-my, and I-want-it now – ALL of it – for free” society, that they can’t see what you are talking about. (Perhaps they should read what they THINK they see the first time, twice or three times before they leap to any conclusions!)
Keep up the amazing work. I will continue to be grateful and thankful for your publications and what we still have in this country of ours. It may not be long before this right may be taken away from ALL of us. Perhaps even you for speaking your mind. I am one of those that had a “Premium This Is True” subscription at one time, but because I had circumstances in my life that prevented me from re-subscribing the next year, I have been grateful for what I HAVE received. Also, as soon as I am able, I will re-up to the 2-year subscription. Thank you for your efforts.
If I weren’t in an office full of people, I would give that a standing ovation. I was almost inspired enough to click on the upgrade link, but then I remembered I already am getting it.
Why not? All This is True really requires is an open mind!
Oh….
I’m right there with you! Waiting for my Monday Night Reading to show up! 😉
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Still lots of writing to do. 🙂 -rc
I have enjoyed the free edition since, I think 2009, then I went Premium, then off a bit, then Premium again and off again, for various reasons of lack of money, time, money and time, and money again….
I still hope that I’ll soon be able to get back on the premium subscription, and with any luck, go back and pay for all the missed issues. And maybe even pay for someone who has had to cancel for reasons beyond their own control — I know some of your lovely readers have done the same before.
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Yes, indeed I do allow “back” subscriptions to get issues you missed. It’s extra work for me, but I’m happy to help readers catch up. -rc
As you know, I’ve been a long time reader… I had premium for a while & had to drop it… Because “life”.
I’m back again as a premium reader and really do enjoy the stories you gather. I hope my little contribution helps fill in the gaps of the ones that have “dropped off”.
Why do people think it’s all about them and get all fluffy offended?! I’m so tired of walking on eggshells and admire those, like you, that can recognize and call out that behavior. The older I get, the more aware I have become and less patient with idiots.
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And yet there seems to be more and more every year. -rc
I’m two weeks behind in my reading because of the busy season, but I’m hoping to get caught up this week. Currently have four issues (two premium, two free) sitting in my inbox waiting to be read.
I’m not sure how many years I’ve been getting your newsletter. I have upgraded a couple of times to the Premium when I could afford it, and I really enjoyed those years. I will be happy to upgrade to a paid subscription when I can afford it again. Until then I am grateful that you continue to give us a quality newsletter for free.
And here I thought this was current state-of-the-public, not 2006!
My spin: I’m from the sciences (called on NASA with a bag-o-tricks a few times), and occasionally Mgmt would run us through Marketing and Quality programs du-jour, on whose completion I tried implementing core concepts. No! “We’re not enough to do those!
There are Harvard /MIT books on business that detail how to be successful in these areas, but ALL the companies I’ve worked for (some rather big) follow their own drums.
No need to cry on those unsubscribes: they weren’t going to upgrade anyway.
Keep on being Randy, pun intended.
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I don’t expect everyone to upgrade: I know not all can afford it, I know not all want more stories. And that’s OK! At least they’re reading SOME! But if they’re truly too stupid to grasp any of it, then I don’t lament their unsubscribe: they’re already a lost cause. -rc
Randy dear, I know this is old news, but, “If you enjoy being on the left side of the bell curve (or don’t know what that means), maybe you should skip it” is offensive, because it demeans people for something that they cannot help. Like you, I am sometimes self-congratulatory about being on the far right of the bell curve, but I know that it was just a matter of good genes. There is certainly an overlap between “dumb” and “unwilling to think,” but they are not identical. Also I remember that one of the events that was always overcrowded at AGs was Abby Salny’s “Dumb Things Mensans Do.” Some of us are overachievers in multiple areas.
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I have on many occasions said that not being smart is nothing to be ashamed of, and in fact still succeeding is something to be proud of. But being able and choosing not to use your gift? That’s the shame. That’s not to say I always express it elegantly. -rc