Aside from a few tweets, I’ve mainly stayed out of the latest TechCrunch brouhaha. These things tend to flare up every few months, and they ultimately end up meaning nothing. But I would like to address one thing in particular, because The New York Times’ David Carr names me specifically in his article on the matter today.
More generally, it occurs to me that a lot of these posts are based around a fundamental misunderstanding of how TechCrunch actually works. Journalists seem to think they can write about TechCrunch as if they’re looking in a mirror. That is to say, they think our operation runs in a similar manner to theirs and they use that as a jumping off point for misguided (but predictable) outrage. In reality, what they’re looking at when they look at TechCrunch is a crystal ball.
So gather ‘round everyone, to learn how TechCrunch actually works.
A Lee Lorenz cartoon from 1994.
Eleanor Roosevelt said these famous lines.
Thought You Should See This: Roger Martin on Fixing the Game
Roger Martin, dean of Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, swung by our office this morning to talk strategy with Monitor partner, Steve Goldbach. Martin’s latest book, Fixing the Game, uses the NFL as a way to illustrate that it is actually possible to think about…
Creating value vs. trading value
Apple vs Samsung
Pictures from minimally minimal via Daring Fireball
Put another way:
Good (iPhone 3GS) — Better (iPhone 4) — Best (iPhone 4S).
Vs.
You should get this one, it has a nicer screen than this one. But wait, it’s slower. Maybe get this other one. But this one has a keyboard. But I hate keyboards. So get this one, it runs Windows Phone. But maybe I should go Android. Oh, so get this one. Well, but I sort of like the clamshell. Then this is the one you want. But I hate the color. Okay, then this one. Well, I also kind of like this one, but it’s running an older version of Android. So then this is the one you want. The screen is too damn big. Okay, just close your eyes and pick one goddamnit.
Choice sounds great until you have to choose.
the understatement: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
The announcement that Nexus One users won’t be getting upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich led some to justifiably question Google’s support of their devices. I look at it a little differently: Nexus One owners are lucky. I’ve been researching the history of OS updates on Android phones…
It’s Not A Mirror, It’s A Crystal Ball
This glass illustrates the marketing distinction between need and want, beautifully. Some may say that marketing, after all, is what you do to sell people things they don’t need.
Rope-A-Dope, Indeed
Sometimes you want so badly to say “I told you so!” after months of getting kicked in the ass, that you do so without really looking into what you’re writing about. Or even thinking, really.
Such is the predicament Dan Lyons finds himself in today.
The artist formerly known as Fake Steve Jobs wrote the following this morning immediately after hearing about Google buying Motorola:
It drives me nuts that anybody treats the Standard & Poor’s downgrading of the U.S. government’s credit rating with anything but contempt.
Continuations: Google Buys Motorola: Patent (and UX) Defense
Google buying Motorola is a strong defensive move against both Microsoft and Apple on two fronts: patents and user experience. Apple is vertically integrated and Microsoft controls Nokia (without having had to buy it). Between that and having filed or acquired a lot of patents, these two pose…
