> To be clear I am not suggesting Gruber is being in any way disingenuous in his arguments
Yes, you are. That is in fact exactly what you are doing.
John Gruber jumps the shark
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Re: John Gruber jumps the shark
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess I take it a bit differently -- the stuff he's usually responding to is from "respected industry commentators" like Rob Enderle or Paul Thurrott and, well, the record kinda speaks for itself. Mainstream coverage tends to pretty consistently publish a lot of things which are flat-out not true (e.g., the oft-repeated claim that iPods can only play music purchased from the iTunes store). And, for better or worse,…
I'm under the impression that the amount of writing about other tech writers on Daring Fireball has increased during the last few months at the expense of writing about, well, tech. Which makes the site less pleasant to read for me. And in a sense it's "jumping the shark" - having run out of ideas, the John Gruber show is starting to fill episodes with unlikely, contrived subplots that have nothing to do with the ori…
I don't agree that there's been an abnormal increase recently; any time Apple launches something major, there's always a followup period in which Gruber does a bunch of his "claim chowder" or similar posts. Similarly, there's usually a short burst of them around quarterly-filing dates, going after market commentators. And, true to form, he's been doing a lot of that lately with iPad coverage, and those posts will probably start tailing off soon.
Re: John Gruber jumps the shark
#33From the comments: 'Gruber even edits his posts without disclosing it. I saw him call Apple's decision to ban an app as a "nameless individual App Store reviewer" fault and not Apple's!' The irony is that Gruber's fame originates from the outrage related to his app rejection.
Out of curiousity, which could somebody link to the post about app rejection?
No such post. Gruber hasn't suggested that he's submitted anything to the App Store. He has written several posts about others' rejected apps.
Re: John Gruber jumps the shark
#34Gruber is so angry these days. There's no more excitement. It's all defensive and pissed-off writing.
Re: John Gruber jumps the shark
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know (especially by the quick upvotes) that you are preaching to the choir here, but I have noticed a lot of non-thechnical, non-geek, never-even-heard-of-happy-days types beginning to use this phrase (incorrectly) just in the past few months. I've given up explaining who the Fonz is and just accepted this new reality. Once a meme goes mainstream, the primary idiom dilutes with use until its just a curios catch phr…
Well, I don't mind so much that the origin is lost, it becomes a pleasant bit of trivia I will inflict upon my hapless colleagues one day, just as I now explain exactly what the phrase "core dump" really means. But in this case I do like keeping true to the specific meaning even if the origin is lost in antiquity. I feel it's a useful distinction to make. As an example, I would say that some years ago John Dvorak jum…
"Shaka, when the walls fell."
Re: John Gruber jumps the shark
#36Nit: "Jumped the shark" or "Jumping the Shark" does not mean "Has started to suck." It's a specific subset of suckage where the subject is clearly aware that they have no new ideas and resorts to ever-more desperate tricks to try to appear fresh and new.
Is self-awareness of your lack of originality really vital? The guy who claims to have come up with the phrase doesn't seem to think so: http://web.archive.org/web/20000817233601/www.jumptheshark.c... Q. What is jumping the shark? A. It's a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on...it's all downhill. Some call it the cl…
Thanks for a great reply!
Looking at the original episode of "Happy Days," I find it difficult to believe that the producers were not keenly aware that they had walked away from the show's concept and were now milking cheap popularity for all it was worth.
I suspect that the definition you give and the one I use are compatible even though they differ. Under the definition you give, the defining moment is really set by the viewer. It's the instant you know it's all downhill from here, not the actual peak. So Gruber's phrase might be the defining moment for Hank.
It's also possible, as was the case for Happy Days, that the producers turn cynical and start resorting to cheap tricks like throwing out all character development and turning the show into a parody of itself, focusing on a caricature minor character rather than the more well-rounded principals. That's the definition I prefer.
They could go together, and I would say there's value in combining them, as in:
"I realized that HN had Jumped the Shark when Paul introduced the Date-a-Hacker feature."
Re: John Gruber jumps the shark
#37Nit: "Jumped the shark" or "Jumping the Shark" does not mean "Has started to suck." It's a specific subset of suckage where the subject is clearly aware that they have no new ideas and resorts to ever-more desperate tricks to try to appear fresh and new.
Is self-awareness of your lack of originality really vital? The guy who claims to have come up with the phrase doesn't seem to think so: http://web.archive.org/web/20000817233601/www.jumptheshark.c... Q. What is jumping the shark? A. It's a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on...it's all downhill. Some call it the cl…
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Re: John Gruber jumps the shark
#38Like all prominent bloggers, Gruber could use some insightful criticism. Too bad this post doesn't offer any. A thousand words that add up to "I can't really put my finger on it or name any specifics, but Daring Fireball seems more uncritically approving of Apple lately" is fine for pub conversation, but it's not much use as reasoned argument. How could Gruber respond to this? The only specific point of Gruber's that…
I agree 100%. I think the reality is probably closer to this. In the past, Hank probably agreed with John more than he disagreed, so it was easy for him to resolve any internal conflict; there was little of it. This was during a time when Apple primarily made desktop/laptop computers with a standard desktop operating system -- as opposed to operating systems like iPhone OS -- that was sufficiently Unix-like to please…
Well said.
Re: John Gruber jumps the shark
#39So, Protip: The word “fanboi” is as ridiculous and juvenile as ”M$”, ”demorat”, “republiscams”, or any other goofy little pun moniker. I half expected the final paragraph to close with an “All Your Base” reference after seeing the word “fanboi”.
I know people don't read Hank for the cleverly barbed and expertly crafted prose... but, really? Fanboi?
Re: John Gruber jumps the shark
#40iPhone critics have seldom let facts get in their way. Essentially, anyone who has criticized the iPhone, or presumably Apple is just someone not dealing with the facts. Hank, your critique falls apart when you switch what should be an existential quantifier with a universal quantifier.
No, the error there is Gruber's.
"Americans rarely get any exercise."
"French people rarely bathe."
If Gruber doesn't want it to be taken as "all iPhone critics," he should specify.