

Tech journalists who make no sense - wlll
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2960-tech-journalists-who-make-no-sense

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JackWebbHeller
I'll give David credit where it's due - Rework is an excellent book, ROR has a
great fanbase, and 37Signals products are generally very well executed.

However I find myself paying little attention to anything he says because it's
all just so negative. I unfollowed him on Twitter because I just found every
single one of his tweets to be criticising someone else or someone else's
business. There's only so much negativity you can take from one person. </2¢>

~~~
teaspoon
I understand the distaste for negativity in general, but if you have a quota
on the amount of negativity taken "from one person", then you're judging the
person rather than the message. Why not evaluate the argument on its own
merits?

I'd like to see less discussion of "David" and "Zed"'s peccadillo on this
site. A cult around someone's personality flaws is just as vapid as a cult
around someone's personality. The well-worn proverb goes, "Great minds discuss
ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

~~~
JackWebbHeller
I haven't heard that proverb before, and yes, I can see how you can apply it.
I think that maybe this is being overanalysed slightly, I don't mean to apply
a quota to anyone. I hardly think this qualifies as a 'cult'.

I just think that overall very little of what DHH has to say is praising or
supportive of anything. Yes, that's judging the person, but only after I've
judged the messages for the several months I was reading what he had to say.
It's mostly things like this - "Forbes isn't exactly known as the pinnacle of
journalism, but their latest piece on Salesforce was too much" - I can make my
own mind up about Forbes' quality of journalism. He states that as a fact, not
an opinion.

~~~
grammaton
For what it's worth, I agree with you 100%. That said, you're fighting a
losing battle on this one - the majority of HNN readers seem to think that as
long as you've written a famous piece of software, it's perfectly reasonable
to carry on like a sniping, petulant child. Spewing vitriol and sarcasm is
being "visionary" instead of "douchey."

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wccrawford
You know what's awesome? That the journalist makes perfect sense to me. This
guy is just apparently not the target audience.

First off, the more data that Salesforce controls, the better they have locked
in their customers... Or the more customers they have. I pity anyone who uses
Salesforce and decides to leave for greener pastures. It would be a bloody
nightmare.

The second clip talks about using social networking to learn more about their
customers and increase retention. Not that mystical.

The third throws some buzzwords, sure, but it also warns people that not
everything that's called a 'cloud' is actually a 'cloud'. In other words, some
services behave like you expect 'cloud' services to (insane uptime and
rendundancy) and others don't.

~~~
scott_s
I have no idea what "post cloud world" means, but other than that, I agree
with your assessment. There's a difference between "your phrasing screams that
you are an outsider and you don't have a full understanding of what you are
talking about" and "I truly do not comprehend what you mean."

I would be surprised if readers of this site honestly could not translate the
buzz-filled marketing speak into what they actually are doing.

~~~
Steko
"I have no idea what "post cloud world" means"

I'll use an example:

Client: "I'll be honest we've been looking at some other cloud solutions and
they're a lot more competitive on price"

Salesforce: "Yeah if all you want is a cloud solution. What is their post
cloud solution?"

Client: "Oh ... umm they didn't even mention that."

Salesforce: "I bet they don't even have one."

~~~
nikcub
I will give you another example

INT. SALESFORCE MARKETING OFFICE

CMO: "we need something new, we have sold 'no software', we have sold 'cloud',
we need something to sell to investors to keep this stock buzzing, after all
we don't want the company to be valued on fundamentals, like Microsoft"

EVERYBODY IN THE ROOM LAUGHS

CMO: "I have a Forbes reporter coming in tomorrow, I need to give him
something"

Marketing VP: "ok, how about 'post-cloud world'. it means that we are doing
whatever is next"

CMO: "brilliant! a 'post-cloud world'. ok now who is getting lunch, i'm
starving"

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taylorbuley
I'm a programmer and former technology staff writer at Forbes.

For what it's worth, this guy isn't a tech journo

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jmitcheson
Frank Lingua, president and CEO of Dissembling Associates, is the nation's
leading purveyor of buzzwords, catch phrases and clichés for people too busy
to speak in plain English. Business Finance contributing editor Dan Danbom
interviewed Lingua in his NYC office.

Danbom: Is being a clichée expert a full-time job?

Lingua: Bottom line is I have a full plate 24/7.

Danbom: Is it hard to keep up with the seemingly endless supply of clichés
that spew from business?

Lingua: Some days, I don't have the bandwidth. It's like drinking from a fire
hydrant.

Danbom: So it's difficult?

Lingua: Harder than nailing Jell-O to the wall.

Danbom: Where do most clichés come from?

Lingua: Stakeholders push the envelope until it's outside the box.

Danbom: How do you track them once they've been coined?

Lingua: It's like herding cats.

Danbom: Can you predict whether a phrase is going to become a cliché?

Lingua: Yes. I skate to where the puck's going to be. Because if you aren't
the lead dog, you're not providing a customer-centric proactive solution.

Danbom: Give us a new buzzword that we'll be hearing ad nauseam.

Lingua: "Enronitis" could be a next-generation player.

Danbom: Do people understand your role as a cliché expert?

Lingua: No, they can't get their arms around that. But they aren't incented
to.

Danbom: How do people know you're a cliché expert?

Lingua: I walk the walk and talk the talk.

Danbom: Did incomprehensibility come naturally to you?

Lingua: I wasn't wired that way, but it became mission-critical as I
strategically focused on my go-forward plan.

Danbom: What did you do to develop this talent?

Lingua: It's not rocket science. It's not brain surgery. When you drill down
to the granular level, it's just basic blocking and tackling.

Danbom: How do you know if you're successful in your work?

Lingua: At the end of the day, it's all about robust, world-class language
solutions.

Danbom: How do you stay ahead of others in the buzzword industry?

Lingua: Net-net, my value proposition is based on maximizing synergies and
being first to market with a leveraged, value-added deliverable. That's the
opportunity space on a level playing field.

Danbom: Does everyone in business eventually devolve into the sort of mindless
drivel you spout?

Lingua: If you walk like a duck and talk like a duck, you're a duck. They all
drink the Kool-Aid.

Danbom: Do you read "Dilbert" in the newspaper?

Lingua: My knowledge base is deselective of fiber media.

Danbom: Does that mean "no"?

Lingua: Negative.

Danbom: DOES THAT MEAN "NO"?

Lingua: Let's take your issues offline.

Danbom: NO, WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE MY "ISSUES" OFFLINE.

Lingua: You have a result-driven mind-set that isn't a strategic fit with my
game plan.

Danbom: I am not getting the answers that I need from you.

Lingua: Your call is very important to me.

Danbom: How can you live with yourself?

Lingua: I eat my own dog food. My vision is to monetize scalable supply
chains.

Danbom: When are you going to quit this?

Lingua: I may eventually exit the business to pursue other career
opportunities.

Danbom: What is your advice to the up and coming generation.

Lingua: Take it and run with it.

------
cgart
I completely agree with that blog post. We are currently in the process of
bootstrapping a web project <http://bebbl.com> and got some echo from the
local media. From all the media coverage we recieved there was only one
journalist who was able to write about our project correctly. All other either
just copied text from others or were not really able to get the idea right.

I suppose the problem for them, is that they need to produce something really
fast and have no time to go deeper into the field.

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BasDirks
_This concept uses social media to gain knowledge of internal activities and
externally about customers to ultimately help increase customer loyalty and
foster interaction between employees and between the company and its
customers._

Reminds me of psychotic speech patterns.

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saraid216
"Beware of false clouds" is my favorite line. It should continue, "They come
to you with miracle solutions, but inwardly they just want your money."

~~~
zeddez
It's a great line. I was thinking more "Beware of false clouds. Hide your
kids. Hide your wife."

~~~
contextfree
Out of context I like the rootlessly paranoid feel of the phrase "the false
cloud", makes my stomach queasy.

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Deestan
I've found that you can just keep shoving marketing bullshit through
badtranslator[1] until the message becomes clear:

> Salesforce.com remains a stock with much upside, according to analysts at
> RBC Capital Markets, as the company continues to control larger quantities
> of customer data and leads the way to a post cloud world.

becomes

> Royal Bank of Canada investment of foreign customers, Salesforce.com (NYSE).

[1] <http://www.cheatingtranslators.com/bad-translator>

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RyanMcGreal
A lot of tech journalism looks like it was written with a markov chain
generator.

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scorpion032
_Irregardless of the synergies we find when enhancing our “web 2.0” ubiquitous
utilization, enterprise-quality, shovel-ready progressive monetization
schemes, we cannot eschew obfuscation assiduously enough._

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roedog
I agree there is bad reporting and in his example the bad editing that let the
story though. I'm interested in hearing where other people find good
reporting.

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wlll
"I’m sure all fields have terrible reporting, but the shit that’s coming out
of the tech world must be eligible for some sort of cake."

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car
Kudos for telling it as it is.

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darwinGod
I choked on my morning tea when I lol'd reading this.!! :-/

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yumraj
Add Cringley to the list, who claims (or rather thinks at:
[http://www.cringely.com/2011/06/intercontinental-
ballistic-a...](http://www.cringely.com/2011/06/intercontinental-ballistic-
app-store/)) that Apple's App store will eliminate software piracy.

If only the world was so much simpler :)

~~~
tjogin
Cringley might be wrong, or right, but at least he writes intelligibly.

