
Nathan Myhrvold, Myth Buster - jamesknelson
https://www.1843magazine.com/content/features/myth-buster
======
ballooney
Lest anyone be taken in by this:

Myhrvold, and his outfit Intellectual Ventures, was/is one of the most
egregious patent trolls of the lot. Their business model relies on victims
being scared off and settling out of court. Courts, and IV's harassment
targets, are beginning to become wise to this and their claims are being taken
to court and thrown out - effectively breaking IV's business model. This has
all been chronicled ad nauseam on HN. So perhaps, realizing this, we're now
getting a flurry of puff-pieces to re-write the story ahead of them having to
figure out how to make an honest living.

No amount of PR lipstick should redeem this particular pig.

~~~
jessaustin
Indeed. It prompts one to wonder how many _Economist_ "executive seminars" and
"innovation summits" IV have attended and/or sponsored...

In the author Renton's possible defense, he seems mostly to be a food writer.
Perhaps no regular tech writer could schedule an interview?

~~~
thrillgore
Nathan doesn't want to be approached by tech writers because he knows he'll
get bludgeoned by them.

He was on ABC's "Nightline" eight years ago, and he sharply pivoted when his
"slice of life" story turned into a softball question about the nature of his
real business: Patent trolling. I'll see if I can't find a video of it.

------
triplesec
A more common frame is Nathan Myhrvold, Patent Troll -
[https://psmag.com/magazine/a-patent-boogieman-with-the-
poten...](https://psmag.com/magazine/a-patent-boogieman-with-the-potential-to-
obliterate-aspiring-startups)

~~~
sigsergv
And also this [http://techrights.org/2009/06/21/nathan-myhrvold-
antitrust-m...](http://techrights.org/2009/06/21/nathan-myhrvold-antitrust-
memo/)

------
evrydayhustling
It always bugged me that Myrhvold could be such a negative force in tech while
doing so many cool things with e.g. food and dinoasaurs. This article really
helped connect the dots: he's the original idea guy, with so many good ideas
that quite a few can succeed despite a lack of interest in "connecting ideas
with reality".

The frustrating part is when a government-granted monopoly makes that kind of
ideating (including about who else's ideas to purchase) so much more
profitable than executing. Maybe both are honest work, but the state of patent
law puts gives so much more power to the person imagining things than the
person making them work, it's crazy.

~~~
masklinn
> It always bugged me that Myrhvold could be such a negative force in tech
> while doing so many cool things with e.g. food and dinoasaurs.

Why? You can be an asshole _and_ be interested in things.

It's one of the big issues of modern western and especially US media to paint
people uniformly, it makes detecting evil so much harder because mass media
does not prepare citizens for the fact that yes, somebody can be an
unrepentant criminal and like Buffy, or a corporate/SI stooge and listen to
ska, or a neo nazi who DMs Honey Heist or Big Gay Orcs.

~~~
evrydayhustling
Very much agree with this and well said! And the article plays into that, by
acknowledging controversy but trying to sweep it into a single playful
persona.

My confusion about NM was a bit more specific: intellectual Ventures seems at
first glance to specifically disrespect the process of invention, by horse
trading with exclusion rights completely divorced from the creation process
they are intended to support. Yet Nathan is himself a creator! To your point,
maybe he's just the jealous/narcissistic sort, or maybe he just doesn't
empathize with folks whose creativity includes execution.

~~~
randcraw
Like Edison? Only less original...

------
thrillgore
I fixed the rubric to be more factually accurate:

"He was the physicist who went to Microsoft and made his fortune. These days
he’s a patent troll, extortionist, bad chef and a litigious piece of shit"

------
natecavanaugh
I feel like the guy who's about to say "what about all of the good things
Hitler did?", but does patent trolling invalidate the good things this guy has
helped contribute?

I feel like that the tech community, for all of our preaching about
meritocracy and rational discussion, we have no problem piling on a fair
amount of demonizing of people who engage in things we don't agree with, but
may have some social value.

One person's patent trolling is another's patent protecting.

Again, none of this to defend his worst actions, but it's not like Satan
created IV and uses it to eat children. Yes, this is a puff piece, but I'm
always surprised that our community has no issue crapping on some people with
no acknowledgement of anything positive they add.

