
The Road Ahead - bhauer
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8456/the-road-ahead
======
passive
Woah.

I'm also 32, and when Anandtech started I was building PCs for myself and
others. It was an incredible resource, and it's been incredibly consistent in
the years since. What always struck me was his discipline and dedication, even
in those early years.

Whenever there's some nifty gear announced, I always wait for the Anandtech
review to purchase, and whenever I want to compare something new with
something old, I know the old Anandtech review will have just the details I'm
looking for.

There have been other sites that dove into particular details in more depth,
but none that provided a consistently deep level across so many topics.

As much as Anand may have received an education through this journey, I know
he has educated so many of us, and through that, strengthened the tech
community in ways that will reverberate for years to come.

Thanks for all you have done, Anand, and please let us know what comes next
for you!

~~~
Tloewald
Anandtech essentially replaced Tomshardware as my go-to place for information
on PC hardware. Oddly enough, Tom was a doctor turned tech writer as well. Go
figure.

~~~
ejdyksen
MacRumors is also run by a doctor turned tech writer, Arnold Kim:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/technology/21blogger.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/technology/21blogger.html)

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throwaway000002
My gushy, heart-felt comment thanking Anand:

Thanks so very much for your _leadership_ over the years Anand.

You kept the tech industry honest, called them out on their benchmarketing,
and championed the consumer. From display quality, to poor NAND performance,
and questionable frequency unthrottling, you've been there the whole time
calling them out on their shenanigans.

I want the staff of AnandTech to hold on to your integrity and this resolve of
yours for decades to come.

I've been proud to be a reader of yours for over a decade, from my first Abit
(what a sweet board) through to the crazy world of walled-gardens and locked
down devices that we now inhabit.

Thank you oh so very much for everything. You are a shining star and a damn
fine gentleman. And now you've made me all sappy and sentimental... :)

Shine brightly, good sir!

------
bhaile
Thanks for all the in depth articles that I've read since '98.

For some perspective, here is a link to a 1999 feature on 17 year old Anand.
[http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/1999/12/01/27...](http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/1999/12/01/271048/index.htm)

"Despite the disparity in size, this David has had some winning moments
against the Goliaths. Just a year ago, Anand scooped everyone in reporting on
a new processor from AMD, the K6-3, well before its release. AMD officials say
they don't know how he got the chip, and Anand sure isn't telling. The
incident drew considerable attention to AnandTech, including a sniffy
reference in PC Magazine to tests "purported to have been run with a prototype
of the K6-3.""

------
ghshephard
Anandtech filled (continues to fill) an important place in the industry that
opened up when Byte magazine fell down. It's the one place where you _always_
know that the hobbyist can go to to get great technical details, in an
entertaining and approachable manner.

I'm super interested in seeing what Anand is up to next - I'm sure it will be
something interesting.

------
bstar77
I've been following Anandtech since my obsession with the first Athlons.
Lasting 17 years as a public figure in an extremely divisive industry with the
level of integrity he consistently maintains is an amazing accomplishment.
Looking forward to seeing what comes next.

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glhaynes
I don't think I've ever seen a single thing at anandtech that would qualify as
"controversial". I can think of very few other journalistic endeavors for
which that's true.

~~~
mtdewcmu
Do you mean that as good or bad? Controversy can cut either way.

~~~
Steltek
I interpreted the word as "scandalous" but he may have meant something else.

~~~
keerthiko
I imagine he meant "arguable, potentially false or misleading", and is
commenting on the consistent clarity and reliability of AT journalism.

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borkt
Thank you Anand, you honestly helped me select parts for so many PC's over the
years. Your work was filled with so much depth yet concise at the same time. I
always looked forward to your intel chipset reviews on pins and needles back
when I was in college. Your writing was literally one of a kind and really
helped so many people, even if it wasn't the most important work in the grand
scheme of things. I am confident no one can fill the void you will leave. This
is reminiscent of the loss of Huell Howser, in the sense that your work could
only have been done by you. Good luck with your future, and if you are ever in
the north bay I owe you a beer!

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pervycreeper
I didn't notice any mention of "why?".

He strikes me as a very clever fellow. I wonder what's next for him.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
He's tired of doing that and wants to move on. That was obvious in reading.

~~~
sliverstorm
You'd think the world of "change jobs every 9 months" would understand that :)

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apu
Crazy that it's been so long. Did any site used to have as in-depth reviews as
AnandTech regularly does? My impression is that AT is what pushed other sites
into having such detailed hardware reviews...

~~~
rythie
In the early days Tom's Hardware did and it pre-dates Anandtech, though
gradually Tom's got worse and Anandtech got a lot better and regular. I
remember in the even the early days (late 90s), I stopped reading magazine
reviews of 3D graphics cards and CPUs because all the reviews were so bad
compared to those sites. Also with the death of Byte magazine, we lost the
architecture explanations too, which those sites then filled the void for.

------
base698
He was a legend when I was going to NC State. Rumors By 2000 were that he had
a Ferrari and multiple homes. He was around the social group I was in but
never got a chance to meet him.

Good for him to move on.

------
anigbrowl
Wow - I think it's us readers that should be thanking Anand for raising the
bar on technical journalism over the last 20 years. I'll miss his hands-on
contributions but look forward to seeing what he turns his hand to next.

------
DanBC
I'm kind of surprised noone has mentioned nowhere mom yet.

That's an early reported example of people faking extreme circumstances -
usually cancer but in this case a relationship, marriage, then road traffic
accident.

[http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=275172](http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=275172)

Some of it it tucked away in the archives.
[http://web.archive.org/web/20010624115154/http://forums.anan...](http://web.archive.org/web/20010624115154/http://forums.anandtech.com/arcmessageview.cfm?catid=38&threadid=102468)

~~~
jodrellblank
Slightly off topic, but that second link is a surprise; posted by dennilfloss
in 2001.

Dennilfloss himself passed a few weeks ago.
[http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2386854](http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2386854)

------
hrabago
I don't read AnandTech a whole lot, but whenever I did, I got the impression
that the site was credible and can be trusted. I hope this continues as their
leadership changes.

------
msh
Anyone knows what happened to the previous smartphone editor Brian Klug?

~~~
polshaw
This. His twitter @nerdtalker still lists him as senior smartphone editor, no
mention of his disappearance (of many months) from AAT, no comment from
anyone, it's surreal.

He and Anand really had a passion that IMO surpassed all the others there. I
think their absence will really weaken Anandtech, although I hope I am wrong.

------
fudgy73
Happy for this guy. It's almost like his 17 year old is going off to a college
designed just for him. Got to be a good feeling.

Being a week younger than Anand, and brown, and a tech head since around the
same age has been great (for me). We both made our first Geocities site around
the same time, although mine was dedicated to the Chicago Bulls and filled
with animated gifs. Does anyone else feel strange kinship to other members of
their (00) high school class? Britney is looking good right?

We've really entered into a review economy these days; it's almost like no one
spends time or money on anything without reading a review of it first. Anand's
"reviews" have always been so thorough that even though something's rating may
be high, he might tell us why the product might not be the right one for us.
It's a great life lesson; the best _______ may not be the best _______ for
YOU.

Thanks, Anand. Wish you all the best!

------
ricw
Wow. I was wondering how the last couple of months had fewer and fewer
articles by anand himself. And how they also became less and less relevant to
what I'm interested in. I've been particularly interested in their / Anands
analysis of CPUs which has been somewhat lacking. Why was nvidias Denver CPU
not mentioned at all?! Where has the analysis of upcoming arm64 CPUs been?!
While the quality of the tech reviews might have been the same, the direction
hasn't. Let's hope they can keep on revealing and analysing CPU designs such
as apples A8, nvidias Denver or qualcomms comm chips. I'm doubtful they will..
Or at least the last half year they haven't.

Last but not least, hats off to an amazing accomplishment by anand. The number
of times he has revealed some deep tech info/cheating/etc which was seemingly
superbly hidden is unbelievable.

------
tedajax
I went to the same high school that Anand went to (albeit several years after
he attended).

It was always interesting listening to my C.S. teachers talk about Anand and
how he had gotten started and everything. It was the kind of thing that
inspired me to keep working and improving my skills.

------
mythz
Damn, the one-of-a-kind Anand will be missed, he's been delivering the most
analytical and technically in-depth content for new hardware, several years
running.

Tech journalism has just lost one of its best technical writer greats.

------
calinet6
Wow. He deserves a really good vacation, and I'm really curious to see what he
does next.

AnandTech has been an amazing resource, and fostered a lifelong fascination
that turned into a career. Sure, there were other sites, but Anand himself
showed me that a true deep understanding of the hardware made it even more
interesting. And he explained in such a great way as to open up the wonder and
beauty within everything he wrote about.

That was the other key teaching from Anand: that good writing and good
communication make everything better. He showed us that in earnest through his
great work.

Three cheers!

------
dmunoz
I agree with Anand, the other writers have indeed been doing a tremendous job.

I've been wondering for awhile now what exactly was going on with Anand at
anandtech. It was either that he was locked away writing some epic articles,
or he was stepping away from the site. Good to see the issue settled publicly.

Regardless, with it also being the case that David Kanter no longer produces
pieces for Real World Tech [0], I'm a bit apprehensive about the future of in-
depth architecture coverage.

[0] [http://www.realworldtech.com/](http://www.realworldtech.com/)

------
kapilvt
thanks for all the fish.

for ssd and cpu arch, anandtech was/is has been delivering the best articles
for years.

------
peg_leg
32?!?!?!

~~~
talloaktrees
I remember reading an article talking about how he started anandtech when he
was a teenager (maybe 16 or 17) and had to argue with his parents to let him
do it.

~~~
codexon
What I want to know is how rich he needed to be to get all that hardware to
review.

If I had access to all that hardware I might have done something like that as
well.

~~~
dualogy
> how rich he needed to be to get all that hardware to review

I believe manufacturers at some point just send them free hardware pieces to
get reviewed.

~~~
k-mcgrady
How about when he was just getting started though. There would have been a
long period when the site wasn't making money, he had to pay for hardware
(which was more expensive in 1997) and he was so young he likely wouldn't have
had any of his own capital. It would be interesting to know how it worked.
Maybe they did send him hardware right from the start but it doesn't seem
likely.

~~~
Steko
If you knew the manager of a big box electronics store in the 90's it was not
hard to come by a large variety of computer parts.

The scene in 40 year old virgin where they destroy all the returns is pretty
accurate to what is supposed to happen. What actually happens is they only
destroy like a quarter of it.

~~~
k-mcgrady
Cool, I had a no idea. I was only really getting started in the late 90's and
fortunately had family that were big into computers and would give me free
parts so don't know much about that scene.

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elyrly
Been a long time fan of the site. Content always surpasses my expectation and
quality of hardware reviewed is amongst the best in the PC market.

------
qq66
Best wishes to Anand. I do think the site has a little to worry about though.
Whenever I read a particularly well written article on the site, I think "this
must be Anand" and when I jump to the byline I'm correct. He sets a quality
bar by example.

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mtdewcmu
Think there's any significance in the title echoing Bill Gates' book?

I have appreciated Anandtech a great deal over the years; the coverage of
AMD's rise to the top with hammer was especially gripping. Thanks and best
wishes, Anand.

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skyhatchash
Amazing to see Anand stay in the game for so long. I remember reading his
first few articles about _memory very hazy - I think_ Pentium 100Mhz CPUs.
Look where he is - persistence works.

------
staunch
We would all be lucky to have contributed as much to technology. I hope you
start your next project out of the same sense of joy. Thank you!

------
blinkingled
Thanks for all the great reviews Anand.

You can tell the site is in good hands by reading recent SSD reviews from
Kristian Vättö. Great stuff.

------
nash11
The Kernel will be missing from the AnandTech system.

------
cyberstone
Interesting

------
blutoot
I wish he retired after the review of the iWatch? :-/

~~~
blutoot
haha... he's headed to the company that'll make the iWatch ;)

[http://recode.net/2014/08/31/veteran-tech-journalist-
anand-s...](http://recode.net/2014/08/31/veteran-tech-journalist-anand-shimpi-
headed-to-apple/)

