13 ms·

MKBHDs for Everything

197 points by eric_khun 2y ago

kumarm 2y ago
MKBHD said what many of us thought about the product.
your_challenger 2y ago
The only argument against MKBHD could be the YouTube title he chose. But if a "company" with many hundreds of people can't handle a title and goes under, it never deserved to exist.
- threeseed 2y ago
  One thing that is missed is that Marques is careful about what he reviews. 99% of the junk that companies release he/his team simply won't waste time on. So the title is probably true.
  - burningChrome 2y ago
    >> One thing that is missed is that Marques is careful about what he reviews. He is and he isn't. If he feels something is not worth it, he'll tell you. Like the crypto phone: "This is a Crypto Phone. Don’t Buy It." with a photo of him face palming: https://youtu.be/hRSMJGs0YMg?si=_sD9MA7JLeDbI0f1 https://youtu.be/hRSMJGs0YMg?si=_sD9MA7JLeDbI0f1 And who can forgot the famous "Escobar Folding Phone"? https://youtu.be/O8FJSjy3bXA?si=nfAe9tZniafBwDmc https://youtu.be/O8FJSjy3bXA?si=nfAe9tZniafBwDmc And the follow up video when the company responded to his original video: "Escobar Responds! A PSA" https://youtu.be/Ns8ydpZ5-4o?si=3tppQYwiMbSVMfb7 https://youtu.be/Ns8ydpZ5-4o?si=3tppQYwiMbSVMfb7 If you filter through his videos, there are plenty of reviews of stuff that he rips that aren't Apple products. Even his review of the Cyber Truck was brutal. And there very clearly are reviews of emerging products they rip like the crypto phone.
    - dvngnt_ 2y ago
      these aren't great buys but they're still better than the wearable device
    - plorg 2y ago
      I don't think that means he isn't careful about what he reviews - just that his selection criteria is not "I expect this to be good". Rather it's, if I had to guess, "this is part of or illustrates an interesting story in the world of technology."
      - Intralexical 2y ago
        No need to guess: > But as many videos as I've made about products, there are way more products out there in the world that exist. So the process of selecting which products to even review in the first place is like an art form to itself. Most products are just, meh, they're fine. Like they exist, they get made, they're fine, whatever. So they have to reach a certain level of interest or being really good to even be considered for review. Or sometimes really, really bad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA
  - Gigachad 2y ago
    I think also part of what makes it so bad is the mismatch between expectations, price, marketing, and reality. If you bought a pair of $10 headphones from ebay and they suck, it's not shocking. But when you have a $700 device, with hundreds of millions in funding, and a ton of marketing about it being the smartphone killer and the future of computing, yet the device is total junk, that makes it worse in a way than other junk marketed as junk.
    - paxys 2y ago
      $700 device which requires a $25 monthly subscription to use, let's not forget.
      - wahnfrieden 2y ago
        And charged multiple times through each day.
      - al_borland 2y ago
        It’s like buying a whole smartphone and service, but only getting the voice assistant. Who wouldn’t think that’s a bad deal?
    - rickdeckard 2y ago
      I do wonder what would have happened if Humane would have launched the product as an invitation-only beta with a different pricing-scheme. The hardware is good enough to test it. Power-consumption, projector and voice-cloud-voice latency is too high. But that's probably all forgivable if it's a "public beta" with the clear statement that this is not a final mass-product...
- ilrwbwrkhv 2y ago
  "The worst product he has ever reviewed.. for now" is an apt title though. If you create a useless product for 700 plus a subscription, for now it is a terrible product and that's what the title said.
- browningstreet 2y ago
  By the time MKBHD is dunking on your product, your company has already made a significant number of errors along the way. Enough to sink you if you’re still working in the proving grounds.
  - Gigachad 2y ago
    There were also tons of other tech reviewers calling the product junk before his video. The problem isn’t that a reviewer called it junk. The problem is the product is junk.
- slg 2y ago
  >The only argument against MKBHD could be the YouTube title he chose. I clicked through to that Vassallo guy's twitter and that is exactly the argument he is making. He isn't defending the product, which he admitted he has never actually used. He isn't defending the company. He isn't even arguing against a single thing said in the body of the video. He is solely objecting to the title for being "sensationalized" as if it is impossible this product is the worst one MKBHD has ever reviewed. It is fundamentally, to use Vassallo's own words, a "distasteful, almost unethical" argument to make because it is attacking someone's character rather than a product that seemingly everyone agrees is at best half-baked.
  - philwelch 2y ago
    Clickbait titles are part of the medium of YouTube and any regular user will recognize it as such. And frankly, having watched the review, I can easily believe this is literally the worst product he’s ever reviewed; it’s a product that costs as much as a smartphone that does a tiny subset of what any smartphone already does, extremely poorly. But let’s talk about the clickbait. The full title of the video is, “The Worst Product I Have Ever Reviewed…For Now”. If it was just “The Worst Product I Have Ever Reviewed”, that would be a perfectly fair summary—maybe a little clickbaity, though it doesn’t seem like MKBHD’s style to go on a rant and completely tear a product apart for the amusement of the audience, and that’s not what he does in the video, either. The “…For Now” vaguely implies that maybe, somehow, in the future, it will improve to the point where it is no longer quite so terrible, and there is some sort of hidden nuance to the otherwise strident tone of the first part of the title, that maybe there is some hope of the product one day, in the future, having some redeeming quality perhaps delivered via OTA update. You don’t know! It’s a mystery! And that mystery—the hope that maybe this piece of junk isn’t totally pointless after all—that’s the clickbait. You want to know what he means by “for now”! The most sensational, clickbaity part of the video title isn’t the negative part, but instead the part that implies the product might be of any value!
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - Intralexical 2y ago
- TiredOfLife 2y ago
  It's amazing that people have issues with a Youtube title that perfectly describes said video.
  - Intralexical 2y ago
    It's not uncommon to encounter individuals which would rather prefer you not look too closely at a thing.
ilrwbwrkhv 2y ago
The problem is nobody is saying the product is good. I remember when the iPhone was launched. Many people hated it but there were also millions who loved it. If your product has only haters, then ya, your product sucks. The CEO also has a strange, what comes off as egotistical "I worked at Apple" vibe which is very off-putting. Maybe he didn't listen to feedback etc to make the product better? Also who funds these things. 240 million dollars in funding. This should have been a Kickstarter.
- sangeeth96 2y ago
  Agree. I don't get what's driving folks comparing this to the iPhone launch. Apples and oranges.
  - zarzavat 2y ago
    The iPhone launch had people screaming and cheering in a room. People were also begging Apple to make an iPhone for years before it was even announced. There were fan mockups. Apple only made it when the engineering had caught up with the vision.
  - Gigachad 2y ago
    I read some old reviews of the iPhone recently and they seemed mostly positive but with some minor gripes about the software and bits that were not as good as existing smartphones. All small stuff that could be fixed up. The problem with this AI pin is that the entire concept seems bad and unfixable. Their whole product is just “your phone, but the only interface is Siri”. For one, you can already do exactly that with a smart watch or phone.
    - SllX 2y ago
      > All small stuff that could be fixed up. That this could happen is one of the most underrated aspects of the original iPhone. In June 2007, the iPhone launched without a way to buy music on the phone and download it yourself, without copy and paste, and without a way to install any Apps. The app story was this little shit sandwich that Steve Jobs sold as a sweet solution called web apps announced earlier in the month (Web 2.0 and AJAX! No SDK!). By the end of the first model’s life, it had the full iTunes Store, it had the App Store full of native apps, and it had cut, copy and paste. Any other phone that launched in 2007 did not see this level of improvement just through software updates in 2008 or 2009.
sangeeth96 2y ago
Everything about that product and its price tag screamed whatever he put up in the title and I'm glad he went ahead so that the average joe doesn't get scammed into getting this garbage. There's clickbait and there's the plain and simple truth.
semireg 2y ago
The Humane couple were interviewed on “How I Built This” last month. The interview has the “I worked at Apple” vibe because both husband and wife did work at Apple. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?i=1000648238898 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-...
- TheAceOfHearts 2y ago
  They were copying the Apple playbook without actually having the history and reputation to back it up, which made them look ridiculous. On their first announcement video the first thing they tell you is that the device comes in a few colors. This strategy might make sense for a product with which you're familiarized, but this is supposed to be a new product category without any prior history. If you're going to introduce a new product, you should start by saying what it is and what it can do. After watching that video I was convinced that the company was run by midwits destined to fail.
  - philwelch 2y ago
    I think they missed some of the more important pages in the Apple playbook. Imagine someone presenting Steve Jobs with this product and claiming that it was ready to be released to the public.
  - aurareturn 2y ago
    Has nothing to do with history and reputation. Has everything to do with solving problems and solving them better. If Apple gave this demo, they would have received the same backlash.
    - TheAceOfHearts 2y ago
      I should've been clearer. When Apple announces a new laptop or phone, you already know about macOS or iOS and their capabilities, so you can focus on other details. For example, I wouldn't find it surprising if a new Apple Watch announcement focused a bit on the bands and look of the device, since the capabilities of the device itself are fairly well known at this point. When announcing a new product that people don't recognize, you don't start the presentation by focusing on peripheral details (e.g. device color) before explaining the core functionality. But yes, the focus should always be primarily on solving problems better than the competition and communicating this clearly to potential buyers.
moscoe 2y ago
Was there ever any doubt the product was… frivolous. It was a last minute Hail Mary from a startup and the end of its rope. God bless them for trying, but there should be no surprise here.
- ilrwbwrkhv 2y ago
  $250 million funding from VCs for what should have been a kickstarter device.
  - bingbingbing777 2y ago
    People that used to work at Apple have to pay themselves a lot of money
ZhadruOmjar 2y ago
Having actually watched the video which seems to be rare in this debate there was really nothing bad or misleading about the content. He genuinely reviews the product and shows it working without any editing or magic. It's an exploratory product that just doesn't work that well and as others have said if it had redeeming aspects surely the fanboys would be jumping to the product's defence. The people criticising MKBHD seem to be upset he would not blindly support the company rather than providing anything good about the product. New products get dragged all the time, it's part of launching in the modern world but it's up to the business to prove them wrong.
- waihtis 2y ago
  100% spot on. What I gathered from the review was that the tech itself is really cool but usability was bad (faster to pull out your phone, take a pic and google it vs the image recognition, battery life of 2-4 hrs, etc.) I also found the reviewers tone to be very mild, it's definitely not outrage-driven. I also applaud the efforts of the aipin folk to try to build something new. They probably raised too much for it to be true but maybe if they fixed the fatal UX flaws they could regain some momentum. Altogether it's just a bit puzzling why this whole outrage has manifested itself
  - wahnfrieden 2y ago
    The tech was bad also
- blitzar 2y ago
  I am yet to watch the MKBHD review of the Apple Vision, but I can safely assume it is very much along the same lines ...
senthilnayagam 2y ago
MKBHD's review made me build a prototype mobile app with neck band / chest mount. Hope I have a usable prototype for friends and family in another 2 months .
slg 2y ago
MKBHD also has a response video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA
deleted 2y ago
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pcurve 2y ago
I really like MKBHD's videos, but he should've picked a different title for the video. Frankly, I feel it did way more damage to him than what he did to Aipin or Fisker, which were already universally panned.
- sourcecodeplz 2y ago
  Absolutely! This product is building a NEW CATEGORY, of course it is not going to be perfect on first itteration.
  - abricot 2y ago
    It also kills any hope in that NEW CATEGORY that makes it really hard for the next one to even try...
  - TheAceOfHearts 2y ago
    Products are reviewed based on their current capabilities, not their future potential. Having watched the review video, I don't think any of the points he brought up were unreasonable. It's not expecting perfection, it's just explaining what state the product is in.
    - exitb 2y ago
      While a different caliber of a device, it does remind me of Apple Vision Pro, which is also carving out a new device category. In its case many reviewers were more receptive to the potential it promises, rather than just a set of provided features. I don’t think the pin is a good product to buy right now. At the same time I believe that in 5 years that style of UI will be more prevalent than whatever AVP tries to push.
  - giantrobot 2y ago
    > This product is building a NEW CATEGORY, of course it is not going to be perfect on first itteration. Oh man you're right. It's a NEW CATEGORY which means the product deserves softball reviews if not just thinly veiled advertisements. Since it's a NEW CATEGORY everyone should buy maybe two or three of them, you know since it's a NEW CATEGORY. We want to support NEW CATEGORIES because reasons. You first.
wpietri 2y ago
Just a few hours ago he came out with a video, "Do Bad Reviews Kill Companies?" (Versus whether it's bad products.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA It's clearly addressing this controversy.
- ayewo 2y ago
  Thanks for linking to it. Marques Brownlee ended his monologue with this pithy remark: “My reviews just accelerate whatever was already going on.” :D
daft_pink 2y ago
Just want to point out that I saw the headlines from the Verve bashing the Humane AI pin as universally terrible before I saw MKBHD’s video. He’s far from the only person with a giant megaphone bashing this device. Dave2d has even suggested he thinks these devices are a scam before they even came out as they essentially avoided reviewers and didn’t allow anyone to purchase the devices.
- praisewhitey 2y ago
  worth noting the controversy at The Verge is the opposite with people saying a 4/10 rating is far too generous
  - paxys 2y ago
    Lol everything is a "controversy" now
  - hbn 2y ago
    It was really just their number score which doesn't seem to be in-line with what the article/video said, which was probably even more damning than Marques' video. If "I can’t think of anyone to whom I’d recommend spending the $699 for the device and the $24 monthly subscription" is a 4/10, I would hate to see the chaos that a Verge 1/10 would wreak across society.
    - neom 2y ago
      They discussed that in the podcast and the dude who gave the score took a lot of flack for it from his co-workers, said something along the lines of "I gave them an extra point to be nice because they tried a hard thing", so it should have been a 3. Personally, I'd have given it a 1 with a nice guy point. 2/10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WGFAfirMO4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WGFAfirMO4
elevatedastalt 2y ago
I find it hard to trust any of these reviewers. You can't become a popular reviewer without having massive conflicts of interests. I could never understand why MKBHD was a thing, for example.
- kadoban 2y ago
  It is possible to have integrity. And if you show that for a long time, people notice and start to value your opinion.
- sph 2y ago
  He is a thing because he is not afraid to say that a $700 pin that's less convenient and clunkier than the phone in your hand is a waste of your money, for example. "Why is he a thing"... Does people have to justify their existence to operate?
sneak 2y ago
You don’t own your own reputation. It’s never irresponsible to tell the public the truth. One might even argue that it’s irresponsible to suggest that people get in the habit of self-censorship simply because they have an audience.
- al_borland 2y ago
  There are reviewers I stopped following, because it became obvious they were just reading whatever a company’s PR team sent them. They never had anything critical to say, it was a paid spokesmodel position. There is no value in that. The one thing any reviewer has is their credibility. Without that, they have nothing. MKBHD retained his credibility here, and no one should fault him for that. If he compromised on that, why would anyone follow him? His alliance should be to his viewers, doing right by them, not the companies. It’s up to the companies to make a good product that someone like Marques can confidently recommend and say good things about. So many people think people should change once they have a large platform, but they got that platform because of who they are, why would they change?
sourcecodeplz 2y ago
I honestly watch almost all his videos but I was kind of surprised on how he handled the Humane AI pin. He basically shit on it for not being perfect. Remember, this is a product in a NEW CATEGORY. Of course it is not going to be perfect. But saying it is the WORST PRODUCT EVAH, is really shitty and way in the clouds (not down to earth). Anyway, I will continue to watch his videos because they are informative and entertaining. Of course I will decide for myself on what I buy and why, because I have a brain and my own agency AND can assess things using my own logic and values. And please don't tell me you don't notice how a sweetheart he is to Apple and Tesla... PEACE
- aurareturn 2y ago
  I would argue that the Humane Pin has done more damage to AI industry than The reviewer has done to it. People are going to point to this product as proof of the AI bubble even though anyone with a brain could see that this would fail from the start.
- rickdeckard 2y ago
  > Remember, this is a product in a NEW CATEGORY. Of course it is not going to be perfect. Okay. We're tech-people here so let's be straight. Software can be improved upon even after purchase. If the company gains sufficient momentum they could address some issues and make it better. But the AI pin is a product which depends on: #1 A projector which consumes too much power yet is too weak to be visible in daylight #2 A voice-cloud-voice roundtrip which is not fast enough to feel instant, especially because there's no display to entertain the user while waiting. Apart from anything else, these human interface issues cannot be fixed after purchase. So cutting as much slack for them as I can, my verdict is still "don't buy" A disruptive product doesn't have to be jack of all trades, it usually excels in 1-2 areas while being weak in others. --> in which area will the AI pin be able to excel?
- theshackleford 2y ago
  Product looks like absolute garbage. PEACE
wavemode 2y ago
People are upset at a product reviewer for reviewing a product. Classic example of why "Person On Twitter Is Angry" being considered newsworthy, or even faintly noteworthy, is one the worst things that has happened to modern discourse.
- eBombzor 2y ago
  Yep. Everything is extreme these days.
- sph 2y ago
  I mostly blame people who take the angry Twittersphere to share it elsewhere, making it spread. Journalists of any niche are particularly good at it, and in this case the author. I don't read Twitter, because I do not care of its drama, but the author did its best to spread it and stoke the fires thanks to their blog.
  - Intralexical 2y ago
    Eh. I blame Twitter. They didn't have to take something dumb that should have been left to immediate obscurity, and show it to thousands of people in the first place as if it had any authority. But clearly, they gained some reach and revenue by doing so, or else we wouldn't be talking about it. Thanks to the character limit (no longer technical, but still cultural) and the algorithmic feeds, the "discourse" on Twitter is entirely synthetic. In real life, the equivalent would be like if somebody were to interrupt you every five seconds, then take the various sentence fragments you managed to get out in between, and stitched that together with random other sentence fragments from hundreds of strangers in a grotesque attempt to manufacture a coherent interaction. Oh, and everybody's screaming all the time, all at once, of course, and the messages you try to say about the Blottinghamville Games Club keep being sent to members of Bunny Murderers for National Unity, and vice versa… All while the giant blue bird-thing keeps trying to tell you about its sponsors. And yet, this mutilation of human thought and conversation itself is presented as if it's just a venue for normal discussions. It's not; The "interactions" on Twitter are interrupted, chopped up, and stitched together. I think it preys, basically on our social instincts, on the desire to assume good faith and perceive an organic conversation happening because it tries really hard to make that seem like the case. Especially given that I'm not sure there's really any comparable dynamic that's ever existed before in all of human history, I don't know how useful it is to blame individuals for falling for that. Twitter monetized a random message and amplified it as if it's important, so the author of the linked article responded, because that's what you do if you assume good faith when somebody else presents something as important… Though at this point we should probably know better.
MichaelMug 2y ago
The drama tweets are just an ad. You kind of want to find out who "Daniel Vassallo" is, and of course he's selling a subscription.
- Oras 2y ago
  That’s it really, mention someone with higher reach to get more visibility
- sph 2y ago
  One thing I love is that Twitter has made logged out accounts so useless, when I clicked on his profile it was just random tweets and I saw nothing about his course. Twitter doing a great job at promoting its paying users. Ridiculous.
- MyFirstSass 2y ago
  Pretty sure he's a scammer like the rest of the people selling courses after never having done anything noteworthy or interesting in their "career". Ie. people shouldn't boost this.
  - tailspin2019 2y ago
    > “Pretty sure he’s a scammer” On what specific basis?
    - MyFirstSass 2y ago
      Because he's like the 1000's of other "growth hacking" scam artists who's selling courses about his own company that sells courses, and tweeting about building a twitter audience. It's completely ridiculous circular nonsense. Take advice from people who actually made a company and actually built stuff that served users, not people who sell courses about selling courses or whatever, or making a splash about making a splash. I don't care he claims he was an engineer at some point, that's basic stuff.
- danaris 2y ago
  Speak for yourself. I read someone tweeting stuff like that, and the last thing I want is to find out more about them or pay any attention to other things they have to say.
paxys 2y ago
This entire controversy is so stupidly overblown. MKBHD posts a fair and thorough review of a shitty product, which is exactly in line with what every other reviewer has said about it as well. One guy tweets about how he wasn't fair, and how he has a responsibility to not write bad things about companies because of the size of his viewer base (wut??) Now the entire internet feels the need to come defend MKBHD, thus amplifying the other side even more.
- throwaway5959 2y ago
  Thing is, we should defend MKBHD. He didn’t do anything wrong. He did his job.
  - paxys 2y ago
    Defend him from what exactly? There was literally no controversy until people started defending him from the controversy. The only person who won here is Daniel Vassallo, whose low effort post went viral because people kept sharing it to show how stupid it was, thus drawing more eyeballs to his $400 "I will teach you how to be a successful entrepreneur" course on X (because of course he has one).
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - throwaway5959 2y ago
      Sorry.
    - atonse 2y ago
      Really? He has a course like that? Sounds like Vassallo is selling way more Snake oil than he claims ill intentions with MKBHD.
      - samrolken 2y ago
        After a while of following him, some bot on his account DMs me about some crypto or whatever stuff.
capybara_2020 2y ago
Curious article. But I wonder if the problem lies elsewhere. The tweet caught my attention. The author seems to be using outrage and dramatic words to get engagement. Based on this article and the views the tweet got, it looks like it is working. The curious thing is that there is a reply from MKBHD in the thread and the tweet author highlights how MKBHD used a more dramatic title on Youtube and that is the authors gripe. It it possible that all the only way to get engagement(the author is doing the same thing on his primary social media channel i.e. Twitter and MKBHD on his i.e. Youtube) now a days on your primary social media platform is with dramatic words/titles? Which is what is causing all this friction?
- inatreecrown2 2y ago
  sure looks like it.
UI_at_80x24 2y ago
I had never heard of MKBHD before now so I had to look it up. They have a youtube channel: www.youtube.com/@mkbhd Described as: MKBHD: Quality Tech Videos | YouTuber | Geek | Consumer Electronics | Tech Head | Internet Personality!
- paxys 2y ago
  He is the most prominent tech reviewer in the business today.
  - sph 2y ago
    Not everyone is part of the same herd. The author could have done a good job at spending two words expanding this acronym and who's behind it. It is referred prominently in the title, and then assumes you know who Brownlee is, as he is mentioned with his last name. A person that never heard of him would not be able to equate MKBHD with the name Brownlee. Not everyone lives on social media like you or I.
    - nemetroid 2y ago
      The author does that.
Intralexical 2y ago
> Hard to explain why, but with great reach comes great responsibility. Potentially killing someone else’s nascent project reeks of carelessness. > First, do no harm. Brownlee's not a doctor. …He's not Spiderman, either, for the record, or at least that we know of. And "Humane, Inc." isn't his patient, or even a person.
- hobofan 2y ago
  Journalists (and I'd argue that MKBHD falls under that even) definitely have responsibility in their reporting. Apart from the hypocratic oath, there are also the 4 pillars of journalism, one of which is "minimize harm". Bringing that one up feels like a recent trend whenever people see legitimate criticism that they can't really argue with, and it's an easy one to bring up as in every truthful reporting about people that have being lying there is at least the lier being "harmed".
  - Intralexical 2y ago
    > and it's an easy one to bring up as in every truthful reporting about people that have being lying there is at least the lier being "harmed". Heh. "Hypocratic"… Appropriate.
  - TiredOfLife 2y ago
    The first pillar is report truth.
  - superhuzza 2y ago
    If anything, MKBHD is minimizing harm, by discouraging people from wasting their money on a very poor product.
- deely3 2y ago
  > First, do no harm. Yes, do not harm corporation. People that spend money on shitty product should be on their own.
0wis 2y ago
Aside from the tweet controversy, I think the article has a point. It is true that AI is providing even more leverage than the other tech layers before it. Probably the same for VR, if it gets adoption. However, the question is : Will this leverage be concentrated to the point that a few will have control and everyone else will happily comply and execute ? Or is it the other way around, allowing everyone more freedom and power to create and grow independent wealth, companies or ideas ? I would love to think the latter but the experience since the dawn of the technology is more the former. How could we ensure that we are on the path toward 7 billion companies more than the one toward even a fewer number of big companies that control the last layer of tech ?
gmerc 2y ago
In Germany we have Stiftung Warentest for that.
speedylight 2y ago
You don’t even need to watch the review to deduce that the AI pin is an inherently flawed product for what it is trying to do; Which is to be the start of new a mobile computing paradigm. The problem with that plan is that we spent decades integrating cell phones into our lives, is there any real appetite to change that after putting in so much work? Smartphones have become this immovable rock which our lives revolve around. I love that hu.ma.ne, the rabbit R1, or any other brand like them are trying to challenge the status quo, and I wish they can achieve some kind of success quickly; I say quickly because Apple will one day knock on the AI door, and when they do they will most likely slay the competition like they’ve done time and time again with Tablets, Watches, Wireless headphones, professional computing, smartphones, and the slew digital services that power them.
deleted 2y ago
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wodenokoto 2y ago
I found the article long winded and a bit unfocused. But what appears to be one of the main points is that stratechery and MKBHD are both successful because they speak the truth, and they can speak the truth because they are online. I quite disagree. MKBHD is more dependent on corporate sponsorship than reviewers were back when consumers had to buy a magazine in order to get access to a review.
- Youden 2y ago
  MKBHD, as far as I've seen, doesn't receive sponsorships from the companies he reviews but rather from purveyors of accessories like Dbrand. And merch. He seems to have a thriving merch offering.
SCdF 2y ago
This is a bizarre article, and feels like an example of that weird phenomenon where tech people believe they've discovered something new and noteworthy, but in reality they are just so deep into their bubble they are out of touch. MKBHD is a tech critic / reviewer / nerd, like Ebert was a movie critic / reviewer / nerd, or Kermode is now. A thing got released, and he's talking about it, and his opinion is his value. > Vassallo is touching on something profound about Brownlee, that I myself understand intimately: what the Internet has made uniquely possible is total loyalty to your customers, and that is threatening. What? Threatening to what? Your ability to hoodwink people? Is the implication that because we're all in tech we should make sure to say everything's awesome all the time as some form of truth collusion, so that when we end up releasing our shitty product hopefully everyone will say nice things too?
- eep_social 2y ago
  > tech people feel they’ve discovered something new and noteworthy Everything on the site is like that (I fell for it too) but it’s not obvious until you run across a topic where you are an expert. He blathers well.
thih9 2y ago
> MKBHD is not the market. He significantly influences the market. If a single person can affect the stock price of a company, we usually restrict what they can say or when. I’d agree with that sentiment if mkbhd was spreading misinformation; to my knowledge, he isn’t, his influencing is based on good reporting. I see nothing wrong with that.
nopinsight 2y ago
The key conclusion of this article lies in the last section, "AI and the Sovereign Individual," which argues that AI will significantly expand the power of certain individuals in many other industries, similarly to how the internet enabled figures like MKBHD to extend their reach and influence in the media. Interestingly, none of the top 10 top-level comments in this thread discuss this point.
- MattSayar 2y ago
  Ah, finally, someone talking about the crux of the article! Everyone talks about AI up-leveling everyone's skills, and I'm honestly excited to see more MKBHDs. Just read another article about how AI is "only sorta useful" but what's it's "sorta useful" at is accelerating your learning curve with just about everything! Since it up-levels every rookie and amateur, I can't wait to see what unfolds from here
DrNosferatu 2y ago
Maybe Vassalo is selling the worst "I will teach you how to be a successful entrepreneur" online course ever? Talk about glass roofs…
- tailspin2019 2y ago
  The casual and baseless character assassination in these comments is pretty infuriating. Also “glass roofs” isn’t a thing.
janalsncm 2y ago
I look at the company Humane which has raised $230 million and I think, maybe some of the people who say we’re in a bubble have a point. I have a ChatGPT pro subscription, I do machine learning professionally, and I am pretty bullish on the long term benefits of automating a lot of things we waste our time on now. But that is a lot of money for a company which doesn’t seem to deserve it. VCs should be putting money into AI research to build the next DeepMind.
- zipping1549 2y ago
  It's just a very new market we're all figuring out and more than ever it is hard to understand what lies ahead. I think we barely know what we have for right now. It's understandable this sort of obviously stupid products getting money, just like how a lot of world changing inventions seemed utterly nonsensical at the time of its first development. This thing is obviously not that though. but that's just my two cents.
danpalmer 2y ago
Vassallo fundamentally sees MKBHD as "punching down", whereas I think the general consensus, and why this is controversial at all, is that MKBHD was not "punching up". I've watched his videos for many years. I can't imagine him doing a video like this for Pinephone, or another smaller company. But a company founded by 2 ex-Apple execs, with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, and the sort of marketing Humane have come out with... that's a fair target.
- alpaca128 2y ago
  > I can't imagine him doing a video like this for Pinephone Especially because they set realistic expectations - last time I saw their Pinebook product page it basically said "if you expect no dead pixels and a perfectly smooth experience please don't order this". They make it clear what their target audience is and aren't even trying to do the shiny Apple-style marketing seen from Humane. This AI pin's marketing set high expectations and the review should take that into account.
singularity2001 2y ago
Why the FXXX is everyone acting like MKBHD is a well known abbreviation?
- orwin 2y ago
  I think it's the name of the guy's YouTube channel, so it isn't an abbreviation.
trollied 2y ago
He's made a video that addresses this entire situation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA&ab_channel=MarquesBrownlee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA&ab_channel=Marqu...
RecycledEle 2y ago
MKBHD = Marques Keith Brownlee
goalonetwo 2y ago
I follow @dvassallo for a long time. Everything start making sense once you realize that he his using his twitter as a way to funnel customers to his other ventures. I love a lot of his takes because they make me think but it is clear that he is trying to find some edgy takes that will make people react.
nunez 2y ago
I agree. There is zero upside in Marques and his crew lying about a product for backchannel sponsorship dollars; only downside. Make bad products, get bad reviews. I especially love how he obliterated Fisker for putting out an incomplete product (Fisker Ocean) at Model Y prices.
rldjbpin 2y ago
love all of this drama, which is overblown partially because of the ai craze imho. the OGs would know when Brownlee would openly criticize Beats headphones before they got acquired by Apple (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsxQxS0AdBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsxQxS0AdBY). although things changed afterwards because of the product quality improved for the money. yet nobody batted an eye back then and Beats only grew bigger. while i personally think that he has always been soft towards the apple ecosystem, he has been consistent and reviewed things as he would like them. this entire debate could be summed to him giving his opinion and should be removed from his success.

197 points by eric_khun 2y ago

MKBHD said what many of us thought about the product.

The only argument against MKBHD could be the YouTube title he chose. But if a "company" with many hundreds of people can't handle a title and goes under, it never deserved to exist.

threeseed 2y ago
One thing that is missed is that Marques is careful about what he reviews. 99% of the junk that companies release he/his team simply won't waste time on. So the title is probably true.
- burningChrome 2y ago
  >> One thing that is missed is that Marques is careful about what he reviews. He is and he isn't. If he feels something is not worth it, he'll tell you. Like the crypto phone: "This is a Crypto Phone. Don’t Buy It." with a photo of him face palming: https://youtu.be/hRSMJGs0YMg?si=_sD9MA7JLeDbI0f1 https://youtu.be/hRSMJGs0YMg?si=_sD9MA7JLeDbI0f1 And who can forgot the famous "Escobar Folding Phone"? https://youtu.be/O8FJSjy3bXA?si=nfAe9tZniafBwDmc https://youtu.be/O8FJSjy3bXA?si=nfAe9tZniafBwDmc And the follow up video when the company responded to his original video: "Escobar Responds! A PSA" https://youtu.be/Ns8ydpZ5-4o?si=3tppQYwiMbSVMfb7 https://youtu.be/Ns8ydpZ5-4o?si=3tppQYwiMbSVMfb7 If you filter through his videos, there are plenty of reviews of stuff that he rips that aren't Apple products. Even his review of the Cyber Truck was brutal. And there very clearly are reviews of emerging products they rip like the crypto phone.
  - dvngnt_ 2y ago
    these aren't great buys but they're still better than the wearable device
  - plorg 2y ago
    I don't think that means he isn't careful about what he reviews - just that his selection criteria is not "I expect this to be good". Rather it's, if I had to guess, "this is part of or illustrates an interesting story in the world of technology."
    - Intralexical 2y ago
      No need to guess: > But as many videos as I've made about products, there are way more products out there in the world that exist. So the process of selecting which products to even review in the first place is like an art form to itself. Most products are just, meh, they're fine. Like they exist, they get made, they're fine, whatever. So they have to reach a certain level of interest or being really good to even be considered for review. Or sometimes really, really bad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA
- Gigachad 2y ago
  I think also part of what makes it so bad is the mismatch between expectations, price, marketing, and reality. If you bought a pair of $10 headphones from ebay and they suck, it's not shocking. But when you have a $700 device, with hundreds of millions in funding, and a ton of marketing about it being the smartphone killer and the future of computing, yet the device is total junk, that makes it worse in a way than other junk marketed as junk.
  - paxys 2y ago
    $700 device which requires a $25 monthly subscription to use, let's not forget.
    - wahnfrieden 2y ago
      And charged multiple times through each day.
    - al_borland 2y ago
      It’s like buying a whole smartphone and service, but only getting the voice assistant. Who wouldn’t think that’s a bad deal?
  - rickdeckard 2y ago
    I do wonder what would have happened if Humane would have launched the product as an invitation-only beta with a different pricing-scheme. The hardware is good enough to test it. Power-consumption, projector and voice-cloud-voice latency is too high. But that's probably all forgivable if it's a "public beta" with the clear statement that this is not a final mass-product...
ilrwbwrkhv 2y ago
"The worst product he has ever reviewed.. for now" is an apt title though. If you create a useless product for 700 plus a subscription, for now it is a terrible product and that's what the title said.
browningstreet 2y ago
By the time MKBHD is dunking on your product, your company has already made a significant number of errors along the way. Enough to sink you if you’re still working in the proving grounds.
- Gigachad 2y ago
  There were also tons of other tech reviewers calling the product junk before his video. The problem isn’t that a reviewer called it junk. The problem is the product is junk.
slg 2y ago
>The only argument against MKBHD could be the YouTube title he chose. I clicked through to that Vassallo guy's twitter and that is exactly the argument he is making. He isn't defending the product, which he admitted he has never actually used. He isn't defending the company. He isn't even arguing against a single thing said in the body of the video. He is solely objecting to the title for being "sensationalized" as if it is impossible this product is the worst one MKBHD has ever reviewed. It is fundamentally, to use Vassallo's own words, a "distasteful, almost unethical" argument to make because it is attacking someone's character rather than a product that seemingly everyone agrees is at best half-baked.
- philwelch 2y ago
  Clickbait titles are part of the medium of YouTube and any regular user will recognize it as such. And frankly, having watched the review, I can easily believe this is literally the worst product he’s ever reviewed; it’s a product that costs as much as a smartphone that does a tiny subset of what any smartphone already does, extremely poorly. But let’s talk about the clickbait. The full title of the video is, “The Worst Product I Have Ever Reviewed…For Now”. If it was just “The Worst Product I Have Ever Reviewed”, that would be a perfectly fair summary—maybe a little clickbaity, though it doesn’t seem like MKBHD’s style to go on a rant and completely tear a product apart for the amusement of the audience, and that’s not what he does in the video, either. The “…For Now” vaguely implies that maybe, somehow, in the future, it will improve to the point where it is no longer quite so terrible, and there is some sort of hidden nuance to the otherwise strident tone of the first part of the title, that maybe there is some hope of the product one day, in the future, having some redeeming quality perhaps delivered via OTA update. You don’t know! It’s a mystery! And that mystery—the hope that maybe this piece of junk isn’t totally pointless after all—that’s the clickbait. You want to know what he means by “for now”! The most sensational, clickbaity part of the video title isn’t the negative part, but instead the part that implies the product might be of any value!
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - Intralexical 2y ago
TiredOfLife 2y ago
It's amazing that people have issues with a Youtube title that perfectly describes said video.
- Intralexical 2y ago
  It's not uncommon to encounter individuals which would rather prefer you not look too closely at a thing.

ilrwbwrkhv 2y ago

The problem is nobody is saying the product is good. I remember when the iPhone was launched. Many people hated it but there were also millions who loved it. If your product has only haters, then ya, your product sucks. The CEO also has a strange, what comes off as egotistical "I worked at Apple" vibe which is very off-putting. Maybe he didn't listen to feedback etc to make the product better? Also who funds these things. 240 million dollars in funding. This should have been a Kickstarter.

sangeeth96 2y ago
Agree. I don't get what's driving folks comparing this to the iPhone launch. Apples and oranges.
- zarzavat 2y ago
  The iPhone launch had people screaming and cheering in a room. People were also begging Apple to make an iPhone for years before it was even announced. There were fan mockups. Apple only made it when the engineering had caught up with the vision.
- Gigachad 2y ago
  I read some old reviews of the iPhone recently and they seemed mostly positive but with some minor gripes about the software and bits that were not as good as existing smartphones. All small stuff that could be fixed up. The problem with this AI pin is that the entire concept seems bad and unfixable. Their whole product is just “your phone, but the only interface is Siri”. For one, you can already do exactly that with a smart watch or phone.
  - SllX 2y ago
    > All small stuff that could be fixed up. That this could happen is one of the most underrated aspects of the original iPhone. In June 2007, the iPhone launched without a way to buy music on the phone and download it yourself, without copy and paste, and without a way to install any Apps. The app story was this little shit sandwich that Steve Jobs sold as a sweet solution called web apps announced earlier in the month (Web 2.0 and AJAX! No SDK!). By the end of the first model’s life, it had the full iTunes Store, it had the App Store full of native apps, and it had cut, copy and paste. Any other phone that launched in 2007 did not see this level of improvement just through software updates in 2008 or 2009.

sangeeth96 2y ago

Everything about that product and its price tag screamed whatever he put up in the title and I'm glad he went ahead so that the average joe doesn't get scammed into getting this garbage. There's clickbait and there's the plain and simple truth.

semireg 2y ago

The Humane couple were interviewed on “How I Built This” last month. The interview has the “I worked at Apple” vibe because both husband and wife did work at Apple. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?i=1000648238898 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-...

TheAceOfHearts 2y ago
They were copying the Apple playbook without actually having the history and reputation to back it up, which made them look ridiculous. On their first announcement video the first thing they tell you is that the device comes in a few colors. This strategy might make sense for a product with which you're familiarized, but this is supposed to be a new product category without any prior history. If you're going to introduce a new product, you should start by saying what it is and what it can do. After watching that video I was convinced that the company was run by midwits destined to fail.
- philwelch 2y ago
  I think they missed some of the more important pages in the Apple playbook. Imagine someone presenting Steve Jobs with this product and claiming that it was ready to be released to the public.
- aurareturn 2y ago
  Has nothing to do with history and reputation. Has everything to do with solving problems and solving them better. If Apple gave this demo, they would have received the same backlash.
  - TheAceOfHearts 2y ago
    I should've been clearer. When Apple announces a new laptop or phone, you already know about macOS or iOS and their capabilities, so you can focus on other details. For example, I wouldn't find it surprising if a new Apple Watch announcement focused a bit on the bands and look of the device, since the capabilities of the device itself are fairly well known at this point. When announcing a new product that people don't recognize, you don't start the presentation by focusing on peripheral details (e.g. device color) before explaining the core functionality. But yes, the focus should always be primarily on solving problems better than the competition and communicating this clearly to potential buyers.

moscoe 2y ago

Was there ever any doubt the product was… frivolous. It was a last minute Hail Mary from a startup and the end of its rope. God bless them for trying, but there should be no surprise here.

ilrwbwrkhv 2y ago
$250 million funding from VCs for what should have been a kickstarter device.
- bingbingbing777 2y ago
  People that used to work at Apple have to pay themselves a lot of money

ZhadruOmjar 2y ago

Having actually watched the video which seems to be rare in this debate there was really nothing bad or misleading about the content. He genuinely reviews the product and shows it working without any editing or magic. It's an exploratory product that just doesn't work that well and as others have said if it had redeeming aspects surely the fanboys would be jumping to the product's defence. The people criticising MKBHD seem to be upset he would not blindly support the company rather than providing anything good about the product. New products get dragged all the time, it's part of launching in the modern world but it's up to the business to prove them wrong.

waihtis 2y ago
100% spot on. What I gathered from the review was that the tech itself is really cool but usability was bad (faster to pull out your phone, take a pic and google it vs the image recognition, battery life of 2-4 hrs, etc.) I also found the reviewers tone to be very mild, it's definitely not outrage-driven. I also applaud the efforts of the aipin folk to try to build something new. They probably raised too much for it to be true but maybe if they fixed the fatal UX flaws they could regain some momentum. Altogether it's just a bit puzzling why this whole outrage has manifested itself
- wahnfrieden 2y ago
  The tech was bad also
blitzar 2y ago
I am yet to watch the MKBHD review of the Apple Vision, but I can safely assume it is very much along the same lines ...

senthilnayagam 2y ago

MKBHD's review made me build a prototype mobile app with neck band / chest mount. Hope I have a usable prototype for friends and family in another 2 months .

slg 2y ago

MKBHD also has a response video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

pcurve 2y ago

I really like MKBHD's videos, but he should've picked a different title for the video. Frankly, I feel it did way more damage to him than what he did to Aipin or Fisker, which were already universally panned.

sourcecodeplz 2y ago
Absolutely! This product is building a NEW CATEGORY, of course it is not going to be perfect on first itteration.
- abricot 2y ago
  It also kills any hope in that NEW CATEGORY that makes it really hard for the next one to even try...
- TheAceOfHearts 2y ago
  Products are reviewed based on their current capabilities, not their future potential. Having watched the review video, I don't think any of the points he brought up were unreasonable. It's not expecting perfection, it's just explaining what state the product is in.
  - exitb 2y ago
    While a different caliber of a device, it does remind me of Apple Vision Pro, which is also carving out a new device category. In its case many reviewers were more receptive to the potential it promises, rather than just a set of provided features. I don’t think the pin is a good product to buy right now. At the same time I believe that in 5 years that style of UI will be more prevalent than whatever AVP tries to push.
- giantrobot 2y ago
  > This product is building a NEW CATEGORY, of course it is not going to be perfect on first itteration. Oh man you're right. It's a NEW CATEGORY which means the product deserves softball reviews if not just thinly veiled advertisements. Since it's a NEW CATEGORY everyone should buy maybe two or three of them, you know since it's a NEW CATEGORY. We want to support NEW CATEGORIES because reasons. You first.

wpietri 2y ago

Just a few hours ago he came out with a video, "Do Bad Reviews Kill Companies?" (Versus whether it's bad products.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA It's clearly addressing this controversy.

ayewo 2y ago
Thanks for linking to it. Marques Brownlee ended his monologue with this pithy remark: “My reviews just accelerate whatever was already going on.” :D

daft_pink 2y ago

Just want to point out that I saw the headlines from the Verve bashing the Humane AI pin as universally terrible before I saw MKBHD’s video. He’s far from the only person with a giant megaphone bashing this device. Dave2d has even suggested he thinks these devices are a scam before they even came out as they essentially avoided reviewers and didn’t allow anyone to purchase the devices.

praisewhitey 2y ago
worth noting the controversy at The Verge is the opposite with people saying a 4/10 rating is far too generous
- paxys 2y ago
  Lol everything is a "controversy" now
- hbn 2y ago
  It was really just their number score which doesn't seem to be in-line with what the article/video said, which was probably even more damning than Marques' video. If "I can’t think of anyone to whom I’d recommend spending the $699 for the device and the $24 monthly subscription" is a 4/10, I would hate to see the chaos that a Verge 1/10 would wreak across society.
  - neom 2y ago
    They discussed that in the podcast and the dude who gave the score took a lot of flack for it from his co-workers, said something along the lines of "I gave them an extra point to be nice because they tried a hard thing", so it should have been a 3. Personally, I'd have given it a 1 with a nice guy point. 2/10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WGFAfirMO4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WGFAfirMO4

elevatedastalt 2y ago

I find it hard to trust any of these reviewers. You can't become a popular reviewer without having massive conflicts of interests. I could never understand why MKBHD was a thing, for example.

kadoban 2y ago
It is possible to have integrity. And if you show that for a long time, people notice and start to value your opinion.
sph 2y ago
He is a thing because he is not afraid to say that a $700 pin that's less convenient and clunkier than the phone in your hand is a waste of your money, for example. "Why is he a thing"... Does people have to justify their existence to operate?

sneak 2y ago

You don’t own your own reputation. It’s never irresponsible to tell the public the truth. One might even argue that it’s irresponsible to suggest that people get in the habit of self-censorship simply because they have an audience.

al_borland 2y ago
There are reviewers I stopped following, because it became obvious they were just reading whatever a company’s PR team sent them. They never had anything critical to say, it was a paid spokesmodel position. There is no value in that. The one thing any reviewer has is their credibility. Without that, they have nothing. MKBHD retained his credibility here, and no one should fault him for that. If he compromised on that, why would anyone follow him? His alliance should be to his viewers, doing right by them, not the companies. It’s up to the companies to make a good product that someone like Marques can confidently recommend and say good things about. So many people think people should change once they have a large platform, but they got that platform because of who they are, why would they change?

sourcecodeplz 2y ago

I honestly watch almost all his videos but I was kind of surprised on how he handled the Humane AI pin. He basically shit on it for not being perfect. Remember, this is a product in a NEW CATEGORY. Of course it is not going to be perfect. But saying it is the WORST PRODUCT EVAH, is really shitty and way in the clouds (not down to earth). Anyway, I will continue to watch his videos because they are informative and entertaining. Of course I will decide for myself on what I buy and why, because I have a brain and my own agency AND can assess things using my own logic and values. And please don't tell me you don't notice how a sweetheart he is to Apple and Tesla... PEACE

aurareturn 2y ago
I would argue that the Humane Pin has done more damage to AI industry than The reviewer has done to it. People are going to point to this product as proof of the AI bubble even though anyone with a brain could see that this would fail from the start.
rickdeckard 2y ago
> Remember, this is a product in a NEW CATEGORY. Of course it is not going to be perfect. Okay. We're tech-people here so let's be straight. Software can be improved upon even after purchase. If the company gains sufficient momentum they could address some issues and make it better. But the AI pin is a product which depends on: #1 A projector which consumes too much power yet is too weak to be visible in daylight #2 A voice-cloud-voice roundtrip which is not fast enough to feel instant, especially because there's no display to entertain the user while waiting. Apart from anything else, these human interface issues cannot be fixed after purchase. So cutting as much slack for them as I can, my verdict is still "don't buy" A disruptive product doesn't have to be jack of all trades, it usually excels in 1-2 areas while being weak in others. --> in which area will the AI pin be able to excel?
theshackleford 2y ago
Product looks like absolute garbage. PEACE

wavemode 2y ago

People are upset at a product reviewer for reviewing a product. Classic example of why "Person On Twitter Is Angry" being considered newsworthy, or even faintly noteworthy, is one the worst things that has happened to modern discourse.

eBombzor 2y ago
Yep. Everything is extreme these days.
sph 2y ago
I mostly blame people who take the angry Twittersphere to share it elsewhere, making it spread. Journalists of any niche are particularly good at it, and in this case the author. I don't read Twitter, because I do not care of its drama, but the author did its best to spread it and stoke the fires thanks to their blog.
- Intralexical 2y ago
  Eh. I blame Twitter. They didn't have to take something dumb that should have been left to immediate obscurity, and show it to thousands of people in the first place as if it had any authority. But clearly, they gained some reach and revenue by doing so, or else we wouldn't be talking about it. Thanks to the character limit (no longer technical, but still cultural) and the algorithmic feeds, the "discourse" on Twitter is entirely synthetic. In real life, the equivalent would be like if somebody were to interrupt you every five seconds, then take the various sentence fragments you managed to get out in between, and stitched that together with random other sentence fragments from hundreds of strangers in a grotesque attempt to manufacture a coherent interaction. Oh, and everybody's screaming all the time, all at once, of course, and the messages you try to say about the Blottinghamville Games Club keep being sent to members of Bunny Murderers for National Unity, and vice versa… All while the giant blue bird-thing keeps trying to tell you about its sponsors. And yet, this mutilation of human thought and conversation itself is presented as if it's just a venue for normal discussions. It's not; The "interactions" on Twitter are interrupted, chopped up, and stitched together. I think it preys, basically on our social instincts, on the desire to assume good faith and perceive an organic conversation happening because it tries really hard to make that seem like the case. Especially given that I'm not sure there's really any comparable dynamic that's ever existed before in all of human history, I don't know how useful it is to blame individuals for falling for that. Twitter monetized a random message and amplified it as if it's important, so the author of the linked article responded, because that's what you do if you assume good faith when somebody else presents something as important… Though at this point we should probably know better.

MichaelMug 2y ago

The drama tweets are just an ad. You kind of want to find out who "Daniel Vassallo" is, and of course he's selling a subscription.

Oras 2y ago
That’s it really, mention someone with higher reach to get more visibility
sph 2y ago
One thing I love is that Twitter has made logged out accounts so useless, when I clicked on his profile it was just random tweets and I saw nothing about his course. Twitter doing a great job at promoting its paying users. Ridiculous.
MyFirstSass 2y ago
Pretty sure he's a scammer like the rest of the people selling courses after never having done anything noteworthy or interesting in their "career". Ie. people shouldn't boost this.
- tailspin2019 2y ago
  > “Pretty sure he’s a scammer” On what specific basis?
  - MyFirstSass 2y ago
    Because he's like the 1000's of other "growth hacking" scam artists who's selling courses about his own company that sells courses, and tweeting about building a twitter audience. It's completely ridiculous circular nonsense. Take advice from people who actually made a company and actually built stuff that served users, not people who sell courses about selling courses or whatever, or making a splash about making a splash. I don't care he claims he was an engineer at some point, that's basic stuff.
danaris 2y ago
Speak for yourself. I read someone tweeting stuff like that, and the last thing I want is to find out more about them or pay any attention to other things they have to say.

paxys 2y ago

This entire controversy is so stupidly overblown. MKBHD posts a fair and thorough review of a shitty product, which is exactly in line with what every other reviewer has said about it as well. One guy tweets about how he wasn't fair, and how he has a responsibility to not write bad things about companies because of the size of his viewer base (wut??) Now the entire internet feels the need to come defend MKBHD, thus amplifying the other side even more.

throwaway5959 2y ago
Thing is, we should defend MKBHD. He didn’t do anything wrong. He did his job.
- paxys 2y ago
  Defend him from what exactly? There was literally no controversy until people started defending him from the controversy. The only person who won here is Daniel Vassallo, whose low effort post went viral because people kept sharing it to show how stupid it was, thus drawing more eyeballs to his $400 "I will teach you how to be a successful entrepreneur" course on X (because of course he has one).
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - throwaway5959 2y ago
    Sorry.
  - atonse 2y ago
    Really? He has a course like that? Sounds like Vassallo is selling way more Snake oil than he claims ill intentions with MKBHD.
    - samrolken 2y ago
      After a while of following him, some bot on his account DMs me about some crypto or whatever stuff.

capybara_2020 2y ago

Curious article. But I wonder if the problem lies elsewhere. The tweet caught my attention. The author seems to be using outrage and dramatic words to get engagement. Based on this article and the views the tweet got, it looks like it is working. The curious thing is that there is a reply from MKBHD in the thread and the tweet author highlights how MKBHD used a more dramatic title on Youtube and that is the authors gripe. It it possible that all the only way to get engagement(the author is doing the same thing on his primary social media channel i.e. Twitter and MKBHD on his i.e. Youtube) now a days on your primary social media platform is with dramatic words/titles? Which is what is causing all this friction?

inatreecrown2 2y ago
sure looks like it.

UI_at_80x24 2y ago

paxys 2y ago
He is the most prominent tech reviewer in the business today.
- sph 2y ago
  Not everyone is part of the same herd. The author could have done a good job at spending two words expanding this acronym and who's behind it. It is referred prominently in the title, and then assumes you know who Brownlee is, as he is mentioned with his last name. A person that never heard of him would not be able to equate MKBHD with the name Brownlee. Not everyone lives on social media like you or I.
  - nemetroid 2y ago
    The author does that.

Intralexical 2y ago

> Hard to explain why, but with great reach comes great responsibility. Potentially killing someone else’s nascent project reeks of carelessness. > First, do no harm. Brownlee's not a doctor. …He's not Spiderman, either, for the record, or at least that we know of. And "Humane, Inc." isn't his patient, or even a person.

hobofan 2y ago
Journalists (and I'd argue that MKBHD falls under that even) definitely have responsibility in their reporting. Apart from the hypocratic oath, there are also the 4 pillars of journalism, one of which is "minimize harm". Bringing that one up feels like a recent trend whenever people see legitimate criticism that they can't really argue with, and it's an easy one to bring up as in every truthful reporting about people that have being lying there is at least the lier being "harmed".
- Intralexical 2y ago
  > and it's an easy one to bring up as in every truthful reporting about people that have being lying there is at least the lier being "harmed". Heh. "Hypocratic"… Appropriate.
- TiredOfLife 2y ago
  The first pillar is report truth.
- superhuzza 2y ago
  If anything, MKBHD is minimizing harm, by discouraging people from wasting their money on a very poor product.
deely3 2y ago
> First, do no harm. Yes, do not harm corporation. People that spend money on shitty product should be on their own.

0wis 2y ago

Aside from the tweet controversy, I think the article has a point. It is true that AI is providing even more leverage than the other tech layers before it. Probably the same for VR, if it gets adoption. However, the question is : Will this leverage be concentrated to the point that a few will have control and everyone else will happily comply and execute ? Or is it the other way around, allowing everyone more freedom and power to create and grow independent wealth, companies or ideas ? I would love to think the latter but the experience since the dawn of the technology is more the former. How could we ensure that we are on the path toward 7 billion companies more than the one toward even a fewer number of big companies that control the last layer of tech ?

gmerc 2y ago

In Germany we have Stiftung Warentest for that.

speedylight 2y ago

You don’t even need to watch the review to deduce that the AI pin is an inherently flawed product for what it is trying to do; Which is to be the start of new a mobile computing paradigm. The problem with that plan is that we spent decades integrating cell phones into our lives, is there any real appetite to change that after putting in so much work? Smartphones have become this immovable rock which our lives revolve around. I love that hu.ma.ne, the rabbit R1, or any other brand like them are trying to challenge the status quo, and I wish they can achieve some kind of success quickly; I say quickly because Apple will one day knock on the AI door, and when they do they will most likely slay the competition like they’ve done time and time again with Tablets, Watches, Wireless headphones, professional computing, smartphones, and the slew digital services that power them.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

wodenokoto 2y ago

I found the article long winded and a bit unfocused. But what appears to be one of the main points is that stratechery and MKBHD are both successful because they speak the truth, and they can speak the truth because they are online. I quite disagree. MKBHD is more dependent on corporate sponsorship than reviewers were back when consumers had to buy a magazine in order to get access to a review.

Youden 2y ago
MKBHD, as far as I've seen, doesn't receive sponsorships from the companies he reviews but rather from purveyors of accessories like Dbrand. And merch. He seems to have a thriving merch offering.

SCdF 2y ago

This is a bizarre article, and feels like an example of that weird phenomenon where tech people believe they've discovered something new and noteworthy, but in reality they are just so deep into their bubble they are out of touch. MKBHD is a tech critic / reviewer / nerd, like Ebert was a movie critic / reviewer / nerd, or Kermode is now. A thing got released, and he's talking about it, and his opinion is his value. > Vassallo is touching on something profound about Brownlee, that I myself understand intimately: what the Internet has made uniquely possible is total loyalty to your customers, and that is threatening. What? Threatening to what? Your ability to hoodwink people? Is the implication that because we're all in tech we should make sure to say everything's awesome all the time as some form of truth collusion, so that when we end up releasing our shitty product hopefully everyone will say nice things too?

eep_social 2y ago
> tech people feel they’ve discovered something new and noteworthy Everything on the site is like that (I fell for it too) but it’s not obvious until you run across a topic where you are an expert. He blathers well.

thih9 2y ago

> MKBHD is not the market. He significantly influences the market. If a single person can affect the stock price of a company, we usually restrict what they can say or when. I’d agree with that sentiment if mkbhd was spreading misinformation; to my knowledge, he isn’t, his influencing is based on good reporting. I see nothing wrong with that.

nopinsight 2y ago

The key conclusion of this article lies in the last section, "AI and the Sovereign Individual," which argues that AI will significantly expand the power of certain individuals in many other industries, similarly to how the internet enabled figures like MKBHD to extend their reach and influence in the media. Interestingly, none of the top 10 top-level comments in this thread discuss this point.

MattSayar 2y ago
Ah, finally, someone talking about the crux of the article! Everyone talks about AI up-leveling everyone's skills, and I'm honestly excited to see more MKBHDs. Just read another article about how AI is "only sorta useful" but what's it's "sorta useful" at is accelerating your learning curve with just about everything! Since it up-levels every rookie and amateur, I can't wait to see what unfolds from here

DrNosferatu 2y ago

Maybe Vassalo is selling the worst "I will teach you how to be a successful entrepreneur" online course ever? Talk about glass roofs…

tailspin2019 2y ago
The casual and baseless character assassination in these comments is pretty infuriating. Also “glass roofs” isn’t a thing.

janalsncm 2y ago

I look at the company Humane which has raised $230 million and I think, maybe some of the people who say we’re in a bubble have a point. I have a ChatGPT pro subscription, I do machine learning professionally, and I am pretty bullish on the long term benefits of automating a lot of things we waste our time on now. But that is a lot of money for a company which doesn’t seem to deserve it. VCs should be putting money into AI research to build the next DeepMind.

zipping1549 2y ago
It's just a very new market we're all figuring out and more than ever it is hard to understand what lies ahead. I think we barely know what we have for right now. It's understandable this sort of obviously stupid products getting money, just like how a lot of world changing inventions seemed utterly nonsensical at the time of its first development. This thing is obviously not that though. but that's just my two cents.

danpalmer 2y ago

Vassallo fundamentally sees MKBHD as "punching down", whereas I think the general consensus, and why this is controversial at all, is that MKBHD was not "punching up". I've watched his videos for many years. I can't imagine him doing a video like this for Pinephone, or another smaller company. But a company founded by 2 ex-Apple execs, with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, and the sort of marketing Humane have come out with... that's a fair target.

alpaca128 2y ago
> I can't imagine him doing a video like this for Pinephone Especially because they set realistic expectations - last time I saw their Pinebook product page it basically said "if you expect no dead pixels and a perfectly smooth experience please don't order this". They make it clear what their target audience is and aren't even trying to do the shiny Apple-style marketing seen from Humane. This AI pin's marketing set high expectations and the review should take that into account.

singularity2001 2y ago

Why the FXXX is everyone acting like MKBHD is a well known abbreviation?

orwin 2y ago
I think it's the name of the guy's YouTube channel, so it isn't an abbreviation.

trollied 2y ago

He's made a video that addresses this entire situation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA&ab_channel=MarquesBrownlee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QztFpzKsdeA&ab_channel=Marqu...

RecycledEle 2y ago

MKBHD = Marques Keith Brownlee

goalonetwo 2y ago

I follow @dvassallo for a long time. Everything start making sense once you realize that he his using his twitter as a way to funnel customers to his other ventures. I love a lot of his takes because they make me think but it is clear that he is trying to find some edgy takes that will make people react.

nunez 2y ago

I agree. There is zero upside in Marques and his crew lying about a product for backchannel sponsorship dollars; only downside. Make bad products, get bad reviews. I especially love how he obliterated Fisker for putting out an incomplete product (Fisker Ocean) at Model Y prices.

rldjbpin 2y ago

love all of this drama, which is overblown partially because of the ai craze imho. the OGs would know when Brownlee would openly criticize Beats headphones before they got acquired by Apple (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsxQxS0AdBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsxQxS0AdBY). although things changed afterwards because of the product quality improved for the money. yet nobody batted an eye back then and Beats only grew bigger. while i personally think that he has always been soft towards the apple ecosystem, he has been consistent and reviewed things as he would like them. this entire debate could be summed to him giving his opinion and should be removed from his success.