I have an extremely unpopular point of view on this, because, unlike the most vocal of HN, I believe there are some things that can't have a price tag attached

I have an extremely unpopular point of view on this, because, unlike the most vocal of HN, I believe there are some things that can't have a price tag attached to them. But: > The prob is that as a tech blog you can't ignore Apple, Google etc. Yes, you can, dammit. If you mean, "as a tech blog you can't ignore Apple, Google, etc. and still make tons of money and eventually sell out to a media empire", then OK, we have some common ground. I'll go along with that. But for all of the hundreds of thousands of readers you somehow amass by following the same stories that everyone else follows, there are -- admittedly a much smaller number of -- readers like me who are starving for something that isn't like everything else that's already out there. I don't care what Apple or Google or Verizon is doing, and I especially don't care that you're covering it versus anyone else. It'll show up in my numerous news feeds. It'll show up on HN. It'll show up on Reddit. It'll show up in Google News. Or someone will ask me about it at some point during the day. What's valuable to me -- and, I think, enough other people -- is getting the information that other people aren't getting. My clients rely on me to keep an eye on the new and the up-and-coming, and it's getting harder and harder for me to gather that kind of information, because there are diminishing reliable sources for it. You guys and Gizmodo and everyone else all compete for page views on the same silly topics and it's not helping anyone. I'll agree that you probably won't get to drive a fancy car by running a business without compromising principles, but let's not kid ourselves that we can't run businesses without selling out. Hell, that's probably pretty much the only reason that anybody reads anythign written on 37Signals anymore -- because they're constantly reminding everyone that they haven't sold out, and they're successful. (Some of them even get to drive nice cars.) And for that matter, it would be lovely if, for a change, I'd get to see someone treat the matter of startups like it wasn't a glamorous Silicon Valleywood lifestyle. Y'know, like a little bit of attention towards all those countless shmucks out there that are building products, taking care of customers, making money, and not dressing like rock stars or scheduling interviews every week.