4 ms·

The End of Innocence

63 points by bentoner 17y ago

shafqat 17y ago
I really don't understand his post. What was the point he was making about TechCrunch??
- etherealG 17y ago
  it was about PR companies. does ethics have a place in their business? I think :)
  - euroclydon 17y ago
    That, and he muses about the relationship between Tech Crunch and the PR firms because this one firm and their shady practices have now been outed. Tech Crunch hasn't done them any favors, or have they, because many PR firm's customers simply don't care how they get results.
- lucifer 17y ago
  My magic decoder ring says the gist of it is that: tech crunch is really a government agency front (PR) pushing intelligence gathering tools (research) such as twitter on the unwary public (wife).
  - apotheon 17y ago
    If that's what he's really saying, I think he's also saying ". . . and this is a good thing!" I'm not so sure that's what he's actually saying, though.
    - hughprime 17y ago
      What I think is that he had a great anecdote and felt the need to shoehorn it into the news of the day. I'm still not sure what his point was about TechCrunch, but I sure did enjoy the story about the hippie wife who didn't know her husband was a spy. (Hmmm, that would make a good movie actually...)
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- mechanical_fish 17y ago
  What he seems to be saying, in an elegantly indirect way, is: A) Um, yeah, PR firms shill for their clients on the Apple Store. Duh. People who didn't see this coming are deluding themselves. B) Moreover, it's particularly ironic that TechCrunch, a site which sits squarely in the center of the tech PR universe, would profess to be shocked, shocked at the behavior of the people that they chat with every day. C) If TechCrunch really is shocked by this, they're going to have a nervous breakdown when they figure out (e.g.) what percentage of the stuff they read every day is written by PR staffers.
  - raganwald 17y ago
    > it's particularly ironic that TechCrunch, a site which sits squarely in the center of the tech PR universe, would profess to be shocked, shocked at the behavior of the people that they chat with every day. I would use the word hypocritical rather than ironic, because (and you allude to this with your Casablanca reference) they are firmly in the know. Irony would be them gaming the blogoverse with unethical "journalism" and link-baiting then discovering that they've been gamed themselves by PR firms.
    - mechanical_fish 17y ago
      Editorial advice accepted -- thanks! But I'll leave the original as it is, to preserve the record for future historians. ;)
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
joubert 17y ago
Would you sell your services to a government that is oppressive or a corporation that abuses its employees? Or would you forfeit that income because it makes you complicit?
- Flemlord 17y ago
  Meh. Oppression is in the eye of the beholder. Some would say the US is oppressive because we torture people and start wars. Or that Steve Jobs verbally abuses his employees. Nothing is black and white. I once had an interviewee walk out of the interview because she thought we charged too much for our software (it started at $2k and was priced lower than the competition). She was so angry she was shaking. For a few seconds I thought about explaining supply and demand or the complexities of building software for a financial services vertical... but instead I thanked her for her time.
jf 17y ago
If you are interested in learning more about where Steve Blank was likely working, learning more about Pine Gap is a good starting point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Gap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Gap

63 points by bentoner 17y ago

shafqat 17y ago

I really don't understand his post. What was the point he was making about TechCrunch??

etherealG 17y ago
it was about PR companies. does ethics have a place in their business? I think :)
- euroclydon 17y ago
  That, and he muses about the relationship between Tech Crunch and the PR firms because this one firm and their shady practices have now been outed. Tech Crunch hasn't done them any favors, or have they, because many PR firm's customers simply don't care how they get results.
lucifer 17y ago
My magic decoder ring says the gist of it is that: tech crunch is really a government agency front (PR) pushing intelligence gathering tools (research) such as twitter on the unwary public (wife).
- apotheon 17y ago
  If that's what he's really saying, I think he's also saying ". . . and this is a good thing!" I'm not so sure that's what he's actually saying, though.
  - hughprime 17y ago
    What I think is that he had a great anecdote and felt the need to shoehorn it into the news of the day. I'm still not sure what his point was about TechCrunch, but I sure did enjoy the story about the hippie wife who didn't know her husband was a spy. (Hmmm, that would make a good movie actually...)
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
mechanical_fish 17y ago
What he seems to be saying, in an elegantly indirect way, is: A) Um, yeah, PR firms shill for their clients on the Apple Store. Duh. People who didn't see this coming are deluding themselves. B) Moreover, it's particularly ironic that TechCrunch, a site which sits squarely in the center of the tech PR universe, would profess to be shocked, shocked at the behavior of the people that they chat with every day. C) If TechCrunch really is shocked by this, they're going to have a nervous breakdown when they figure out (e.g.) what percentage of the stuff they read every day is written by PR staffers.
- raganwald 17y ago
  > it's particularly ironic that TechCrunch, a site which sits squarely in the center of the tech PR universe, would profess to be shocked, shocked at the behavior of the people that they chat with every day. I would use the word hypocritical rather than ironic, because (and you allude to this with your Casablanca reference) they are firmly in the know. Irony would be them gaming the blogoverse with unethical "journalism" and link-baiting then discovering that they've been gamed themselves by PR firms.
  - mechanical_fish 17y ago
    Editorial advice accepted -- thanks! But I'll leave the original as it is, to preserve the record for future historians. ;)

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

joubert 17y ago

Would you sell your services to a government that is oppressive or a corporation that abuses its employees? Or would you forfeit that income because it makes you complicit?

Flemlord 17y ago
Meh. Oppression is in the eye of the beholder. Some would say the US is oppressive because we torture people and start wars. Or that Steve Jobs verbally abuses his employees. Nothing is black and white. I once had an interviewee walk out of the interview because she thought we charged too much for our software (it started at $2k and was priced lower than the competition). She was so angry she was shaking. For a few seconds I thought about explaining supply and demand or the complexities of building software for a financial services vertical... but instead I thanked her for her time.

jf 17y ago

If you are interested in learning more about where Steve Blank was likely working, learning more about Pine Gap is a good starting point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Gap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Gap