5 ms·

Calacanis vs DHH on This Week in Startups

32 points by pchristensen 17y ago

pchristensen 17y ago
Most of the discussion is over now, but the video will be reposted to this url by Monday. It's the first time I've ever seen someone do a good job attacking dhh/37signals. It's not belligerent, but very probing. Makes me wish I could have seen Calacanis when he was a tech journalist.
- jasonmcalacanis 17y ago
  I think I would have become one of the top 10 tech journalists ever if I had not been cursed with being a CEO/founder. Sometimes I wish I was still a journalist.
  - brandnewlow 17y ago
    I don't doubt that at all. Founding a business exposes you to very real pain points that someone who hasn't run a business might not think to ask about. Since my transition from journalism to entrepreneur/sometime-journalist, I've often wondered why on earth people listen to business journalists who've never started or managed a business of their own. How could they possibly write with authority if they haven't been through this themselves?
    - jasonmcalacanis 17y ago
      This is a fair point.... when you start running businesses you start realizing how little journalists really understand the industry you're actually in and how it works. There are exceptions like John Markoff from the New York Times, Peter Rojas of Engadget/GDGT, Kara Swisher, Walt Mossberg, Henry Blodget and Michael Arrington. all of those folks have deep knowledge... many other folks are simply rewriting press releases.
      - btilly 17y ago
        It doesn't have to be businesses. When you learn the truth about anything that is commonly reported, you learn how shallow the reporting on it is. That is true whether you're gaining a deep knowledge of science, politics, a particular celebrity, or anything else you see in the news. But if you think that reporters in general are bad, wait until you see a "documentary" on it. Hollywood's attitude is, "If we don't know the difference then our audience won't either." It shows.
  - jackowayed 17y ago
    And you wonder why people hate you. "I could have been one of the best ever if I weren't cursed with having to make millions of dollars." It sounds so cocky. I actually don't hate you (When I first heard of you, I asked a friend of mine "Is this guy a dick, totally awesome, or both?" and I still think "both" is a pretty good way to describe you, so you could say I'm split.), but I hope you see why people do.
    - jasonmcalacanis 17y ago
      Why would I care if people hate me because I'm honest? I can tell you I would have been one of the worst NBA players of all time and one of the best business journalists of all time with a straight face... because both statements are true. rock on
      - jackowayed 17y ago
        Simply saying that would have been ok--a little cocky, but excusable in my book--were it not immediately followed by your statement that you were "cursed with being a CEO/founder." If you really wanted to realize your potential as a tech journalist, you could have. No one forced you to start companies. Saying that you're "cursed" by achieving one of the top goals of half of the people here (having a wildly successful startup)--and becoming orders of magnitude richer than the average person because of it--isn't going to help with all of those "haters" who downvote half of your comments to -4.
        wooster 17y ago
        I'm pretty sure that was meant to be humorous.
    - petercooper 17y ago
      but I hope you see why people do. And like Jobs, Gates, Ellison, Branson, or whoever, I hope he doesn't care if random people on the Internet think he's arrogant or is a "dick." You don't get to even Jason's level by dwelling on this (or, at least, showing it in public). That aside, if Jason had a ton of time to dump into being a "top tech journalist", would he be up against really serious competition? Cringely? Mossberg? Scoble? Arrington? All awesome in their own ways but the gamut of skill in that game is pretty thin.
benologist 17y ago
Eh .... 30 seconds in I'm listening to some guy crap on about how awesome Apple are because they only put one USB port in some laptop. Back to work for me.
- pchristensen 17y ago
  The interview section from about 45 min to 90 min in was really good, worth coming back to when the full version is posted.
  - jasonmcalacanis 17y ago
    Thanks! DHH was an amazing guest with great perspective and obviously he has the talent to back up his positions. Really enjoyed having him as a guest.... the show will be up at www.thisweekin.com in two hours or so. best j
dnsworks 17y ago
I was just thinking, it's been about 4 or 5 days since the last rash of "Calacanis is an evil SEO monster bird mecha godzilla thing" blog postings.
- pchristensen 17y ago
  This didn't have anything to do with that. This was one of the most even yet intense debates I've seen in a while. Most of the time it's either one dominant person that no one is standing up to, or everybody is buddy buddy and I get suspicious about the lack of disagreement. The was healthy debate.
  - jasonmcalacanis 17y ago
    I loved it. David is a smart, passionate guy... you don't see that too often in our business. he reminded me of a young Mark Cuban
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
benofsky 17y ago
Does anyone have a link to the video?
- ryanhuff 17y ago
  Its usually posted on itunes a day or so after.
simon_kun 17y ago
The interesting bit is where David gets sucked into Calcanis' "more money is best" angle (and in some respects, JC's brain really lucked out on picking up on this weakness). From what I can tell, DHH is much more focussed on Quality of Life than simple monetary gain which was only briefly touched on (if at all). Good discussion.
petercooper 17y ago
404 error and I can't find the content on the site. Why was it pulled?
- rnicholson 17y ago
  http://thisweekinstartups.com/2010/03/twist-46-with-david-heinemeier-hansson/ http://thisweekinstartups.com/2010/03/twist-46-with-david-he...
  - petercooper 17y ago
    Cool, but it doesn't play. The video gets a 403 error and the audio a 404 (on the underlying media files).
jrockway 17y ago
"Couldn't care less" versus "don't care very much" on "wow, i really don't care". The blogosphere is like an organism that can eat itself to survive and grow.
robertgaal 17y ago
I hope somebody (Jason?) starts doing shorter 10m summary videos of this.
- pchristensen 17y ago
  http://thisweekintwist.com/ http://thisweekintwist.com/

32 points by pchristensen 17y ago

Most of the discussion is over now, but the video will be reposted to this url by Monday. It's the first time I've ever seen someone do a good job attacking dhh/37signals. It's not belligerent, but very probing. Makes me wish I could have seen Calacanis when he was a tech journalist.

jasonmcalacanis 17y ago
I think I would have become one of the top 10 tech journalists ever if I had not been cursed with being a CEO/founder. Sometimes I wish I was still a journalist.
- brandnewlow 17y ago
  I don't doubt that at all. Founding a business exposes you to very real pain points that someone who hasn't run a business might not think to ask about. Since my transition from journalism to entrepreneur/sometime-journalist, I've often wondered why on earth people listen to business journalists who've never started or managed a business of their own. How could they possibly write with authority if they haven't been through this themselves?
  - jasonmcalacanis 17y ago
    This is a fair point.... when you start running businesses you start realizing how little journalists really understand the industry you're actually in and how it works. There are exceptions like John Markoff from the New York Times, Peter Rojas of Engadget/GDGT, Kara Swisher, Walt Mossberg, Henry Blodget and Michael Arrington. all of those folks have deep knowledge... many other folks are simply rewriting press releases.
    - btilly 17y ago
      It doesn't have to be businesses. When you learn the truth about anything that is commonly reported, you learn how shallow the reporting on it is. That is true whether you're gaining a deep knowledge of science, politics, a particular celebrity, or anything else you see in the news. But if you think that reporters in general are bad, wait until you see a "documentary" on it. Hollywood's attitude is, "If we don't know the difference then our audience won't either." It shows.
- jackowayed 17y ago
  And you wonder why people hate you. "I could have been one of the best ever if I weren't cursed with having to make millions of dollars." It sounds so cocky. I actually don't hate you (When I first heard of you, I asked a friend of mine "Is this guy a dick, totally awesome, or both?" and I still think "both" is a pretty good way to describe you, so you could say I'm split.), but I hope you see why people do.
  - jasonmcalacanis 17y ago
    Why would I care if people hate me because I'm honest? I can tell you I would have been one of the worst NBA players of all time and one of the best business journalists of all time with a straight face... because both statements are true. rock on
    - jackowayed 17y ago
      Simply saying that would have been ok--a little cocky, but excusable in my book--were it not immediately followed by your statement that you were "cursed with being a CEO/founder." If you really wanted to realize your potential as a tech journalist, you could have. No one forced you to start companies. Saying that you're "cursed" by achieving one of the top goals of half of the people here (having a wildly successful startup)--and becoming orders of magnitude richer than the average person because of it--isn't going to help with all of those "haters" who downvote half of your comments to -4.
      - wooster 17y ago
        I'm pretty sure that was meant to be humorous.
  - petercooper 17y ago
    but I hope you see why people do. And like Jobs, Gates, Ellison, Branson, or whoever, I hope he doesn't care if random people on the Internet think he's arrogant or is a "dick." You don't get to even Jason's level by dwelling on this (or, at least, showing it in public). That aside, if Jason had a ton of time to dump into being a "top tech journalist", would he be up against really serious competition? Cringely? Mossberg? Scoble? Arrington? All awesome in their own ways but the gamut of skill in that game is pretty thin.

benologist 17y ago

Eh .... 30 seconds in I'm listening to some guy crap on about how awesome Apple are because they only put one USB port in some laptop. Back to work for me.

pchristensen 17y ago
The interview section from about 45 min to 90 min in was really good, worth coming back to when the full version is posted.
- jasonmcalacanis 17y ago
  Thanks! DHH was an amazing guest with great perspective and obviously he has the talent to back up his positions. Really enjoyed having him as a guest.... the show will be up at www.thisweekin.com in two hours or so. best j

dnsworks 17y ago

I was just thinking, it's been about 4 or 5 days since the last rash of "Calacanis is an evil SEO monster bird mecha godzilla thing" blog postings.

pchristensen 17y ago
This didn't have anything to do with that. This was one of the most even yet intense debates I've seen in a while. Most of the time it's either one dominant person that no one is standing up to, or everybody is buddy buddy and I get suspicious about the lack of disagreement. The was healthy debate.
- jasonmcalacanis 17y ago
  I loved it. David is a smart, passionate guy... you don't see that too often in our business. he reminded me of a young Mark Cuban

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

benofsky 17y ago

Does anyone have a link to the video?

ryanhuff 17y ago
Its usually posted on itunes a day or so after.

simon_kun 17y ago

The interesting bit is where David gets sucked into Calcanis' "more money is best" angle (and in some respects, JC's brain really lucked out on picking up on this weakness). From what I can tell, DHH is much more focussed on Quality of Life than simple monetary gain which was only briefly touched on (if at all). Good discussion.

petercooper 17y ago

404 error and I can't find the content on the site. Why was it pulled?

rnicholson 17y ago
http://thisweekinstartups.com/2010/03/twist-46-with-david-heinemeier-hansson/ http://thisweekinstartups.com/2010/03/twist-46-with-david-he...
- petercooper 17y ago
  Cool, but it doesn't play. The video gets a 403 error and the audio a 404 (on the underlying media files).

jrockway 17y ago

"Couldn't care less" versus "don't care very much" on "wow, i really don't care". The blogosphere is like an organism that can eat itself to survive and grow.

robertgaal 17y ago

I hope somebody (Jason?) starts doing shorter 10m summary videos of this.

pchristensen 17y ago
http://thisweekintwist.com/ http://thisweekintwist.com/