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Hey Reader, Robert Redford has been gone less than a year, but I've seen one of his movies referenced more than others in that time. (Is this the part where I brag that I was way ahead, including it three years ago in my book Technical Content Strategy Decoded?) That movie is Sneakers. The film came out in 1992 and has the best of analog-era hacking. Think telephone lines. Modem screeches. One scene shows this encrypted server:
Gibberish, right? Not for Robert Redford, who has gathered a ragtag team that includes nicknames like “Whistler,” “Mother,” and “Marty.” Whistler is a blind character whose hearing is so good that he can use it to interpret telecommunications tones. He plugs a nondescript box into the appropriate port and… this encrypted banking system is suddenly accessible:
Perhaps too easy. Good translation is hard to distinguish from magic. Whether it happens in a box, with a multilingualist, or by listening very, very carefully. As you might expect, this ability to decrypt, to translate, is one of the lessons in Sneakers for developer marketers. But that’s really the final step. An important one, but it would not be possible without the preparation. It’d be like skipping to the third act of the movie. We all want the inevitable hacker van chase scene, but it only works if you put in the work up front. Redford’s character is a hacker, but that’s not his most important role. He’s the leader who assembles these specialists. And that’s what really makes it a Robert Redford movie. Here’s how to bring Sneakers into your work without becoming a /-/4CK3R:
The question is: who’s doing the translating now? AI tools already are. The LLM Reach Assessment shows how your product is interpreted—and where you can shape the story. Your voice is your passport. Adam P.S. I need a cool Sneakers-like nickname... any ideas? |
EveryDeveloper
A developer marketing lesson hidden in sneakers
Adam DuVander
4mo·3 min read
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