Jamie, it follows the rulebook of communication so far 
Its great that it appears that from either now to 6 weeks from now things will be shipping, which keeps in the July timeline (or earlier). Canât wait to get my email
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Itâs funny, Iâve had this exact talk with my two boys many times. When the lottery gets way up there I will buy a ticket. Itâs fun to daydream for a few hours about âwhat ifâŚâ which to me is worth the price of the ticket, but better yet it helps to have conversations with my boys about how the amount of money you have doesnât determine your value as a person, your happiness in life. It only effects the opportunities you have to either help yourself or others. I learned this years ago when I went to East Africa with my wife. We got back out in the bush visiting villages that seldom if ever saw âwazungusâ (white people). Mud huts, thatched roofs, dirt floors, no doctors, no âcomforts.â What shocked me what how happy they all were. If their health was good and there was food to eat they convinced themselves that life was good. And it was. I remind my boys of that when they start acting like life is unfair because the power cord on their X-Box stops working 
Iâm such a mean dad 
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Selecting which interpretation (or how positive or negative you want to go on an ambiguous phrase) can certainly define how you look at things. However, you also have to look at the history of the announcements, and that certainly colors how you interpret them.
One might look and say that GF can claim they shipped â2 monthsâ ahead of the schedule, but that doesnât really matter if the volumes are so low that it takes till December for everyone to get their units.
Personally I donât care when they claim to have started shipping, just when I receive my unit. I am expecting it prior to the end of August, and will be pleasantly surprised if it arrives sooner.
Overall it is a good sign that this is not a PRU - shows that even if its a trickle coming out, it gives me more confidence that July/August will be a reality.
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Exactly, and any new expediting process tends to start smaller to work out kinks, and then ramp up. That they are shipping production units now, even if in small batches of undisclosed size, is a critical step to ramping up to shipping them all. That they are shipping them today gives real hope for the idea of pushing them out by the deadlines.
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A childâs in a field. You give them a balloon.
Another childâs in Disneyland. Their balloon pops.
Guess which kid is happier? Kids are little differencing engines.
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PS Also grownups.
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The Glowforge rulebook, yes. Iâm just surprised that theyâd announce at Makerfaire, and send out only delivery emails to the first owners. Then just follow up with yes itâs real and answer some questions on the forum. I thought with an announcement like this, communication best business strategy would be to follow up with an email to all 10,000 owners with the great news. Thus being proactive and take control of the message. Excitement and word of mouth would build up faster. I could easily be wrong, just my thoughts.
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If no one hears the balloon pop, did it really happen? 
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Agree⌠seems that more fanfare would be called for, especially after all the delays, and how anxious people are to get their units. But I take it as par for the course
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I wish I could say I didnât understand that.
In the meantimeâŚsince no one is ever going to change the way another person views his or her own personal environment, maybe we should all just go be happy or suspicious as our own nature dictates to us. What will happen, will happen, no matter which way we perceive it. 
And I fully expect that to be completely ignored, so carry on. As you were.
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Good advice. So easy to give, so hard to take.
Also hard to not try to help people out of their own self-induced misery.
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Hey, Iâm out. Had this discussion one too many times. My intent and the result are always two different things.
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You are so right. Honestly weâre talking about a purchase 99% of the worldâs population canât afford to make. Itâs the perfect example of a freakin first world problem.
People wanna bitch and moan about how unfair life is ought to spend some time in Paris or Jerusalem where life is mostly normal but there is a very real non-zero risk that you wonât be coming home tonight. Or most anywhere Syria or Afghanistan where there are places going out tonight carries less likelihood youâre coming back than will.
Sheesh.
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I think getting an email from Glowforge with the subject âGlowforges are now shippingâ and then having 9,900+ people read the email only to find out that yes, Glowforges are shipping, but their Glowforge is not shipping yet, would lead to even more unhappiness.
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I think youâre right. For the vast majority of buyers nothing has changed. Theyâre still waiting for July or August. The only ones who the early start of shipping is relevant to are the ones here who are looking for affirmation that Jul/Aug is still on or who have been counting on it to be earlier than that.
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Isnât that exactly what has happened? However they heard it on this forum , via Facebook, via Makerfaire, or some other way. They donât have the full message directly from Glowforge confirming that yes the July deadline is still a go, everything is looking great with answers to some expected questions. So the speculation, questions and expressions of disappointment began. Control the message and reassure with an email to all owners. Again, the opinions expressed here are solely those of the author⌠
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As someone Iâve recently discovered has a habit of saying, âAs it turns out, facts donât care about your feelings.â Kinda lined up with how, ironically, Iâve always felt: Dreams and wishing is nice and so are goals, but be realistic about which is which and youâll be much happier(and sometimes pleasantly surprised too).
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The big courier company would just send more one truck in a day or send next day. They have it to a science. I used to buy the materials to build the green Coin sorting machines and that was 53 foot trailer plus courier trucks. Glowforge machines are a piece of cake if they use UPS or Fedex
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Quite often, folks are committed to making stories that conform to their particular world view and personal take on life. If someone believes that answer Z is the only thing that will assuage their personal feelings of suspicion intrinsic to their worldview and understanding of how life works, and if they do not get answer Z, then their world view (often times that they are being cheated or lied to or mislead or misused in some fashion) is confirmed. The story has served its purpose, and though negative, confirms the outlook on the world. That there are responses from A to Y is often dismissed or overlooked because those too might be equally valid, but shake the foundational story.
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