

Perhaps You Are Bored Because You Are Boring - jeremychone
http://www.bitsandbuzz.com/article/michael-arrington-bored-or-boring/

======
knowtheory
I am suffering from a severe lack of caring about HN right now so this is not
going to be a terribly convincing case, but i feel like i should remark as
follows.

(Depressingly) I think Arrington is right. The majority of the links on HN are
a good demonstration of how tedious things have gotten.

The real irony is reading a blog post telling Arrington to shut up and do
something to fix the problem instead of blogging about it. Seems like we could
have just skipped a whole bunch of steps and arguing, and just do interesting
things instead.

Instead we're commenting on blog posts (instead of learning/making/doing).

~~~
jrajav
> Instead we're commenting on blog posts (instead of learning/making/doing).

> instead of learning

I don't know about your experiences with HN, but I find it to be one of the
most efficient ways to learn about and keep up with the current state of the
art, and commenting is a part of that. I usually get at least one good take-
away for every four articles or comment threads - an extremely high ratio
compared to any other web resource I know about. And for the craft we're in,
learning and reasoning _is_ doing.

~~~
tbatterii
content wise, HN and r/programming seem to have the same headlines from day to
day.(at least the ones that aren't about valley/startup/funding/managerish bs)

HN is unique in that it tends to be more civil than r/programming(and there's
more valley/startup/funding/managerish bs). IMO

~~~
saraid216
Believe it or not, some of us aren't on Reddit.

~~~
nekojima
Are these r/ references to Reddit? I had thought it was yet another new quirky
unneeded programming language I had intentionally avoided to learn.

~~~
joshAg
yes. reddit.com is a community site made up of sub-communities called
subreddits. Subreddits have a path of /r/<community name>.

------
Hawkee
I also had a lot of respect for Arrington in the early days of Techcrunch, but
one event irreversibly changed my opinion of him. I was attending a Techcrunch
event in Hollywood some years ago, either 2006 or 2007 if I remember
correctly. I had gone to meet him to get his opinion on my current project. At
some point during the event Pete Cashmore showed up and Arrington became
livid. He kicked him out and was obviously very upset that Pete would even
consider coming. So rather than meet young entrepreneurs he spent the rest of
the evening focusing on keeping Cashmore out. It was quite a mess. After that
I pretty much stopped reading Arrington's posts, not out of spite, but out of
sickness that he could lack so much humanity.

A couple conferences later I actually got to meet Pete and he was very warm
and welcoming. He even remembered my business and genuinely asked how its
doing. A little humanity goes a long way.

~~~
taybin
I'm going to need more context here.

~~~
Hawkee
[http://valleywag.com/378716/michael-arrington-drinks-
valleyw...](http://valleywag.com/378716/michael-arrington-drinks-valleywags-
milkshake)

------
wallflower
The reality is that many small businesses fail. Small businesses like startups
are small businesses, regardless of whether they have a mobile app as one of
their main products. We can romanticize tech startups like coffee shops[1] but
the reality is they both need paying customers or a sustainable source of
revenue to survive.

The dream for many of us on HN is to have a profitable, sustainable business.
Perhaps, some of the boring ideas that are executed will fail eventually but
they will all deliver experience of trying and failing - which you cannot go
to school for, blog about without doing.

Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni started Balsamiq on nights and weekends, and now
it's supporting half a dozen families. If that is not a real, tangible
definition of a successful business is, I don't know what is.

People other than Peldi have succeeded on their own definition [2] and share
this with us and inspire us. That is the beauty of HN, the signal exceeds the
noise.

The reality is that it takes an extremely rare individual to start a high-
growth enterprise that ends up employing hundreds or thousands of employees.
It is a special combination of luck, persistence, experience, risk, social
intelligence, force of will, genius, foresight, vision, personality, charisma,
luck, possibly connections. The media and community lionize successful startup
founders, and I remember hearing once about the guy who invented the little
highway reflectors you see embedded in the California roads (his family gets a
royalty for every single one...)

[1] "My Coffeehouse Nightmare", <http://www.slate.com/id/2132576/>

[2] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3029771>

------
jeremychone
Note: The original title for this HN post was "Dear Michael Arrington, Perhaps
You Are Bored Because You Are Boring" but somehow got edited to "Perhaps You
Are Bored Because You Are Boring."

If someone can tell me why the original HN title was wrong, that would be
greatly appreciated.

No big deal, just curious.

~~~
hayksaakian
New title is somewhat misleading. Despite being more PC, it generalizes the
authors specific point

~~~
jeremychone
Yes, and I am sorry, but nothing I can do.

The last thing I wanted to mean was that bored people were boring, as this new
title seem to imply. I find this a little insulting, and definitely wrong.

My point was about Michael Arrington only, and referring to this latest post
and his "I am bored because of you guys" insinuation.

So, ironically, by removing the "Michael Arrington" the title has become more
"uncivil" and disrespectful IMO. I wish it could be reverted back (I will put
a foot note in my article to apologize to HN readers)

------
neya
Amazing article. Personally, I find Arrington to be kind of arrogant,
especially the way he criticizes people (and entire industries). But, I
wouldn't be surprised if Arrington wrote a long boring letter on this
'credibility check' either attacking the author or the industry (again).

~~~
jeremychone
Thanks for the nice word. To be honest, I heard nothing from Michael
Arrington, and I doubt that he would do anything since this article will fade
away much faster if he does not.

In a way, being below the radar allows me to do things that could be riskier
for other more popular bloggers. There is definitely a fear of Michael
Arrington in this industry, still to this day, which is understandable as he
has one of biggest microphone and he can be quite unpredictable and violent in
his attacks.

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zerooneinfinity
If the guy wasn't such a dick about the other guy being a dick it'd be a great
article.

~~~
jeremychone
@zerooneinfinity

Getting confused, I am not sure who is what anymore.

Also, no need to curse and insult. Just differ without cursing and insulting,
much more constructive and less confusing.

~~~
zerooneinfinity
Your response could have been less offensive, you intentionally attack Michael
a few times.

Where you do address the argument is weak. Even I, who is in your camp mind
you, would not be convinced technology is in a thriving and prosperous time
based on the examples you gave.

Lastly, the penultimate of your response and if I didn't know any better,
reason you wrote the entire thing to begin with was, to be preachy and tell a
man to 'stop lecturing and start doing'. First and foremost, it's perfectly
acceptable for him to have an opinion on the current state of technology. His
argument was never that he could make the next big thing, it was just that he
wants to see it happen.

~~~
jeremychone
Ok, fair and good points, but I differ.

1) Offensiveness: Yes, this is a open letter to Michael Arrington, and it was
blunt and harsh, but I think that his style is the same and more, and his post
was a good example on how he can be offensive to a whole community and
industry. And my philosophy is that you should treat people the way they treat
others.

Btw, I went to the first MA tech events at his house, and he was great then.
However, as he got notoriety and became public figure he started lecturing
industries over and over, became very aggressive, often disrespectful, and
sometime extremely violent. When it was about the blogging and PR industries,
I did not have enough context to answer, but as his post targeted my backyard
which is the entrepreneur and tech community, I took it to heart to respond an
harsh but respectful open letter.

So, yes, it was harsh and blunt and directed at Michael Arrington, but I do
not think this post was was rude, disrespectful, or say anything wrong about
him.

2) Tech thriving arguments: Ok, apparently we agree on the where, but not the
why. My point was that now, since technology has been fully popularized from
an interface (e.g, touch) and distribution (e.g. app stores in addition to
web), the opportunities are endless. Back in the days, we always had to worry
if the user was tech savvy enough to use or install the product, and how to
get the product to the users. Over the last few years, this has been virtually
illuminated, for consumer and for enterprise users. Touch interface are so
natural that virtually anybody can use a computing device nowadays. For me,
and the impact that this can have on how further we can absorb computing in
our all aspect of our life is just mind blowing. If you add the popularization
of 3D printing, which will bring the digital world to the real one, this is
even more mind blowing. Anyway, those are really my points, but if you think I
missed the bigger picture, let me know, I am genuinely curious.

3) On Michael Arrington giving opinions: I love opinions, I am opinionated,
and I also love to be proven wrong, as I learn when I am wrong and don’t when
I am right. So, I have nothing about someone giving opinions, I am against
people blaming a industry or community about being slow, un-innovative, or
unethical, especially when you have a huge voice (which Michael Arrington
definitely earned). And this is what Michael Arrington has been doing over and
over for the last 5 to 7 years.

We, the older crowd have a responsibility to enable our younger siblings to
thrive where we have not, and for this blaming and lecturing ourselves can
only be divert people to the wrong direction.

Now, obviously, freedom of speech first and foremost, Michael Arrington had
the right to wrote what he wrote, I had the right to disagree with him and his
style, and people has the right to disagree with one or the other or both.

Best, thanks for this good points. Curious to hear more about #2.

------
mocy
Nice article, though I don't think Michael is boring. As both of you seem to
agree, the problem is that the major tech blogs have been boring.

It is ironic at a time when tech has never been as exciting. Tech is a lot
more than the latest mobile startup from a VC friend, or the latest samsung vs
apple development. Maybe it is time for some new publications?

~~~
thirdtruck
How much of this impression of "boring" might stem from your own expertise and
superior knowledge? You might see a lot of pattern fulfillment that others,
with different backgrounds, can read only as confusing (and seemingly novel)
noise.

I know that I find a lot of gaming news, for example, more boring that other
kinds due to my NES-era entry to the field. My brain can compress a genuinely
innovative title down to "Old Game X + Old Game Y" even before my conscious
brain realizes it, only to have a lot of the value-adding details tossed in
the process. I suspect that a lot of people underestimated the iPad because
their subconscious tossed out "just a better Newton (that device collecting
dust in our garage, remember?)" as a cognitive shortcut and they stopped
there.

In short: how much of the impression stems from HN growing less interesting
versus us detecting patterns faster than new developments can break them?

------
kevincennis
Wow. Never thought I'd see a HN post with a title that is, essentially, lyrics
from a Harvey Danger song.

~~~
jeremychone
Well, the title was the article title "Dear Michael Arrington, Perhaps You Are
Bored Because You Are Boring" but somehow it got edited :(

------
return0
Why shoot the messenger? Tech is so boring nowadays that bloggers lose their
interest in getting exclusive scoops (and Pinterest is revolutionary? Yawn).
Also, where is the evidence that Arrington is boring?

~~~
jeremychone
First, Michael Arrington has never been a messenger of anybody but himself,
so, I did not shoot any messenger.

Second, the real question is can someone interest some and bore other? if yes,
in my case, I found Michael Arrington interesting when I went to his very
first startup events at his palo alto home, bu then, as he met success (that
he rightfully deserved) became to lecture everybody and became very boring to
me.

Again, this is my personal opinion that I wanted to share.

~~~
return0
While all opinions are respectable, it seems you are saying he is wrong
because you think he is boring as a person. Fair.

~~~
jeremychone
Not sure. What I meant is that what bores me with Mr Arrington, is that he is
always lecturing from the passenger sit, rather than just do stuff and show us
how things can be done. That's bores me.

------
JulianWasTaken
When was the hit part of the CrunchPad?

~~~
taybin
I think the author meant "swing and a miss"

~~~
jeremychone
Thank Taybin, this is what I meant, and I just edited it.

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puddingpops
Under the cobblestones, the beach!

