I'm confused. This article is an example of someone talking about silly gossip.
Are People Finally Getting Bored with the Tech-Blog Circle Jerk?
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Re: Are People Finally Getting Bored with the Tech-Blog Circle Jerk?
#62I can't help thinking of this kind of thing as being like driving by a 10-car pileup on your commute home. You know you're not supposed to stop and stare, but you do anyway.
Re: Are People Finally Getting Bored with the Tech-Blog Circle Jerk?
#63Given how many years the political circle jerk known as cable news has been going, I believe there may be an infinite appetite for this stuff.
Warning: Rant. There is indeed. Western culture has undergone a value shift. Today's values are superficial in the extreme - we value money, personality[1], and social status. We "want respect"[2], and don't want to be "judged"[3]. Most of all, we crave others' approval. The old values like integrity, honesty, empathy, conscientiouness and authenticity have been tossed aside. It's also the reason people like Arringto…
Good post and good observations, I am old enough to remember some of the shift. Things where a lot different when I was young, while they where already in motion there has definitely been a shift.
The old values like integrity, honesty, empathy, conscientiouness and authenticity have been tossed aside.
This is very true, a person used to be respected for these values, while there have always been crooks and creeps the majority of the populous held people with these virtues with regard. Now they are seen as antiquated, old fashion and Victorian. It now seems that they have been replaced with rude for rude's sake and controversial for controversy's sake. Further much of the information is devoid of any value, the subject of this post can be held out as an example a bunch of reporters running around writing opinionated gossip. Sadly this cultural shift seems to be going global, and I don't understand the basic human desire for it to, it is not like western culture is happier if anything we are becoming a more and more miserable lot. Why someone would want to model it without improving on it is beyond me.
Re: Are People Finally Getting Bored with the Tech-Blog Circle Jerk?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Western culture has undergone a value shift. Today's values are superficial in the extreme - we value money, personality[1], and social status. We "want respect"[2], and don't want to be "judged"[3]. Most of all, we crave others' approval. The old values like integrity, honesty, empathy, conscientiouness and authenticity have been tossed aside. This is not a new idea. In the year ~ 100 AD the Roman poet Juvenal wrote…
How'd that Roman Empire turn out for them, once they got their bread and circuses? When claiming that this "fall of civilisation" talk is always around, I'm not sure drawing comparisons to the era leading to the fall of Rome is really bolstering your case. Quite the opposite.
How'd that Roman Empire turn out for them, once they got their bread and circuses?
Pretty good. They were the major military power for a few hundred more years, and they had a massive influence on the language, cultural and law of the area for ~2,000 years.
Re: Are People Finally Getting Bored with the Tech-Blog Circle Jerk?
#65I always saw Silicon Valley inevitably being covered and cared about as much as the Hollywood insidery cabal of power and influence. As much as we believe in the ideas, teams, executions, it's still very much an old boys network. Don't fool yourself otherwise. The community upturns its nose constantly about gossip or fluff. But you don't get it, that's all there really is. Gossip and fluff. Tech reporting is as dry a…
If you want a good example example of gossip and fluff in the tech industry just look at 99% of the articles that hit HN frontpage in the past few days about the $1b Instagram purchase.
Yeah, seriously. I ditched slashdot and came to HN because slashdot was becoming filled with Apple fanboys and Microsoft shills ("oh look! Apple released a white iPhone!"). The instagram thing was pretty annoying, but at least it didn't stay around long. What I'd really like to find is a technical site with discussions about programming and computer science, preferably with a strong bent towards Linux and other F/OSS. I'd like to find a place with people smarter than me (shouldn't be hard to find) who talk nothing but shop, no gossip, no fluff.
Re: Are People Finally Getting Bored with the Tech-Blog Circle Jerk?
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
How'd that Roman Empire turn out for them, once they got their bread and circuses? When claiming that this "fall of civilisation" talk is always around, I'm not sure drawing comparisons to the era leading to the fall of Rome is really bolstering your case. Quite the opposite.
For one thing, Juvenal was several centuries before the fall of Rome. The sack of Rome by the Goths was in 476. Second, this kind of rhetoric is more or less ubiquitous, just like the "the youth of today don't respect their elders" line.
Minor historical correction: The Goths sacked Rome in 410. 476 marks the date that Odoacer deposed the emperor Romulus Augustulus and didn't claim the throne or try to prop up a different emperor.
Re: Are People Finally Getting Bored with the Tech-Blog Circle Jerk?
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want a good example example of gossip and fluff in the tech industry just look at 99% of the articles that hit HN frontpage in the past few days about the $1b Instagram purchase.
Yeah, seriously. I ditched slashdot and came to HN because slashdot was becoming filled with Apple fanboys and Microsoft shills ("oh look! Apple released a white iPhone!"). The instagram thing was pretty annoying, but at least it didn't stay around long. What I'd really like to find is a technical site with discussions about programming and computer science, preferably with a strong bent towards Linux and other F/OSS…
good luck. this site exists to enable the business practices of "tech" entrepreneurs and investors. gossip and fluff, as you call them, are necessary to hype the various start-ups or the skills and personalities of the teams involved. you need to smile all the time and ignore the little voice in the back of your head that says "we do not need another way to share photos."
Re: Are People Finally Getting Bored with the Tech-Blog Circle Jerk?
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want a good example example of gossip and fluff in the tech industry just look at 99% of the articles that hit HN frontpage in the past few days about the $1b Instagram purchase.
Yeah, seriously. I ditched slashdot and came to HN because slashdot was becoming filled with Apple fanboys and Microsoft shills ("oh look! Apple released a white iPhone!"). The instagram thing was pretty annoying, but at least it didn't stay around long. What I'd really like to find is a technical site with discussions about programming and computer science, preferably with a strong bent towards Linux and other F/OSS…
Well, this isn't the place you're looking for. This is a discussion board about startups- it includes programming and computer science, but isn't dictated by it. Perhaps /r/programming on Reddit would work better?
Re: Are People Finally Getting Bored with the Tech-Blog Circle Jerk?
#69"madam, the things these fallen women do would make your hair curl"
"oh vicar, this is terrible. please, do go on"
Re: Are People Finally Getting Bored with the Tech-Blog Circle Jerk?
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same here. I stopped following Siegler, Arrington, Sarah Lacy & co cause their arrogance and writing was just unbearable. They call themselves journalists/bloggers, but all they want is something in exchange for you appearing on their site/feed. That is not journalism. These guys stopped writing about tech a long time ago, and instead started writing about their close (relational/economic) interests.
TechCrunch and related acts are just /tech tabloids/ now. Media literacy in the USA has been on a steep decline in the past 50 years, as evidenced by how these people still make and break startups. See also: things like Fox News blaming Obama for high oil prices instead of speculation in oil futures. The emperor has no clothes.
The fact that the tech industry has given them the power to "make or break" startups is insane. These people are horrible writers, and the fact that anyone gives them the time of day is insane. Posts from TC, Pando, and the like, AND posts about them, shouldn't be allowed on HN.