

The End of Innocence - bentoner
http://steveblank.com/2009/08/24/the-end-of-innocence/

======
jf
If you are interested in learning more about where Steve Blank was likely
working, learning more about Pine Gap is a good starting point:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Gap>

------
shafqat
I really don't understand his post. What was the point he was making about
TechCrunch??

~~~
mechanical_fish
What he seems to be saying, in an elegantly indirect way, is:

A) Um, yeah, PR firms shill for their clients on the Apple Store. Duh. People
who didn't see this coming are deluding themselves.

B) Moreover, it's particularly ironic that _TechCrunch_ , a site which sits
squarely in the center of the tech PR universe, would profess to be shocked,
shocked at the behavior of the people that they chat with every day.

C) If TechCrunch really is shocked by this, they're going to have a nervous
breakdown when they figure out (e.g.) what percentage of the stuff they read
every day is written by PR staffers.

~~~
raganwald
> it's particularly ironic that TechCrunch, a site which sits squarely in the
> center of the tech PR universe, would profess to be shocked, shocked at the
> behavior of the people that they chat with every day.

I would use the word _hypocritical_ rather than ironic, because (and you
allude to this with your Casablanca reference) they are firmly in the know.
Irony would be them gaming the blogoverse with unethical "journalism" and
link-baiting then discovering that they've been gamed themselves by PR firms.

~~~
mechanical_fish
Editorial advice accepted -- thanks! But I'll leave the original as it is, to
preserve the record for future historians. ;)

------
joubert
Would you sell your services to a government that is oppressive or a
corporation that abuses its employees?

Or would you forfeit that income because it makes you complicit?

~~~
Flemlord
Meh. Oppression is in the eye of the beholder. Some would say the US is
oppressive because we torture people and start wars. Or that Steve Jobs
verbally abuses his employees. Nothing is black and white.

I once had an interviewee walk out of the interview because she thought we
charged too much for our software (it started at $2k and was priced lower than
the competition). She was so angry she was shaking. For a few seconds I
thought about explaining supply and demand or the complexities of building
software for a financial services vertical... but instead I thanked her for
her time.

