5 ms·

I haven't read Cringely before. Is he a trustworthy reporter, or a sensationalist? I will buy his book if he's a sober observer. I just hate these kind of bo

I haven't read Cringely before. Is he a trustworthy reporter, or a sensationalist? I will buy his book if he's a sober observer. I just hate these kind of books usually though, because they are often the product of sensationalists looking to make a quick buck.

lwf 12y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely et http://www.pbs.org/cringely/ http://www.pbs.org/cringely/ He's been writing about tech since 1987, initially with InfoWorld.
smacktoward 12y ago
His book "Accidental Empires" (http://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Empires-Silicon-Millions-Competition/dp/0887308554 http://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Empires-Silicon-Millions-Co...), and the PBS documentary miniseries that was based on it, "Triumph of the Nerds" (http://www.amazon.com/Triumph-Nerds-Bob-Cringely/dp/B00006FXQO/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1401912503&sr=1-1&keywords=triumph+of+the+nerds http://www.amazon.com/Triumph-Nerds-Bob-Cringely/dp/B00006FX...), are both terrific, must-read/see histories of the dawning and maturity of the age of personal computing. The doc is especially fascinating now because it was made in the window of time after Steve Jobs' failure at NeXT, but before his triumphant return to Apple -- so it provides a glimpse of him humbled and circumspect, which is a very different tone than that he took in nearly every other public appearance ever. Cringely's more recent work has been kind of hit or miss, though.
- hga 12y ago
  It is worth "reading the whole thing" for the anecdote about how a single well intentioned but ignorant employee almost killed Intel, along with the point he makes that technical companies are less ... solid that previous ones (my word, not his). Normally only a few people at the top of a Fortune 500 company can quickly kill it; in technical companies there are a lot more.
  - zizee 12y ago
    Is it possible to share the anecdote here? Or provide a link?
    - hga 12y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5293934 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5293934
- kqr2 12y ago
  He also did a miniseries on PBS called "Plane Crazy" in which he tries to build an airplane in 30 days. It actually has some good start-up lessons in there! http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/1998/pulpit_19980724_000578.html http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/1998/pulpit_19980724_0005...
  - pessimizer 12y ago
    OH WOW. He's that guy? That documentary is one of my favorite things of all time. Ok, just went to Amazon and ordered a copy; thanks for reminding me of this.
  - vermontdevil 12y ago
    that was one of my favorite miniseries. really eye-opening to the difficulties of building your own plane.
- mathattack 12y ago
  Has it been the same Cringley all along? I always assumed it was multiple people under that name over time.
  - meej 12y ago
    Wikipedia explains. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely
smackfu 12y ago
It's not even clear that this is reporting, as much as it's opinion pieces about a particular company that he thinks is doing things wrong. A quote from the intro that seems like a bit of a red flag: "The book had to be written because writing the same story over and over for seven years hasn’t changed anything."
- xienze 12y ago
  As a recent ex-IBMer, I can say that Cringely is absolutely telling the truth about what's going on at IBM.
  - mjcohen 12y ago
    Are you a current ex-IBMer?
    - xienze 12y ago
      Uh, OK. I use "recent" to denote that I've only recently become an ex-IBMer, so my knowledge of the company's workings are perhaps more relevant than someone who left 10 years ago.
jmsduran 12y ago
It depends on who you ask. As a former IBM'er, I can attest that many of the employees I worked with turn to Cringely and the IBM Alliance [1] for IBM-related news and rumors. [1] http://www.endicottalliance.org/jobcutsreports.php http://www.endicottalliance.org/jobcutsreports.php
mapgrep 12y ago
You don't make a quick buck on a story of the fall of a company. Business books, as a genre, are utterly dominated by success stories, because the people who buy them want to be inspired or to learn things they can imitate from winners. Yes, that is flawed logic. But it's what people tend to want. So if you're trying to make a quick buck that's what you latch on. If, on the other hand, you're following your intrinsic curiotsity you want to study fallen giants to see what can be learned from past mistakes. Now, none of that is sexy. "Fallen," "past" and "mistakes" are not words you tend to see on business book jackets. But some writers will do such a book anyway. I'm not saying Cringely is automatically to be trusted here, but it's not accurate to say books like this are often written to make a quick buck. If you want a quick buck you write something glowing and positive and no one will complain.
mindcrime 12y ago
I haven't read Cringely before. Is he a trustworthy reporter, or a sensationalist? It's kind of hard to say. I've been following his stuff since sometime in the 90's, and he's definitely brash and opinionated (at times anyway), but I don't know if I'd exactly say he's "sensationalistic". I'd probably take his work with a small grain of salt, but I don't see him as somebody who just "makes shit up" out of the air.
- frede 12y ago
  That's my approach as well. He was quite wrong with "Lean and mean", where he predicted the layoff of 150.000 US employees in 2007 [1]. [1] http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070504_002027.html http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070504_0020...
mikestew 12y ago
> I haven't read Cringely before. Is he a trustworthy reporter, or a sensationalist? I've read him since back in his InfoWorld days. For the most part I'd say "non-sensationalist", unlike say, Dvorak. I'd don't know that I'd classify him as a reporter, but more like a pundit. I mean, I don't look to Cringely for hard facts but more his take on the facts that we collectively know. Anyway, were it the type of thing I care to read about I'd buy his book. EDIT: "Crinkly"? Seriously, Android auto-correct? (Though to be fair, Mac OS X tried the same thing when I fixed it.)
nostrademons 12y ago
He's sensationalist, but he occasionally has some very interesting insights. I wouldn't take his word as factual gospel, but it will be an interesting read, and it may provoke you to think differently about the tech industry and look at other patterns you may have missed.
hindsightbias 12y ago
No. He's the peter schiff of the tech world Said IBM was going to lay off 150k by the end of the year like 5 yeArs ago Now he writes a captain obvious book that could apply to anyone in the industry.
jayvanguard 12y ago
He has been around a long time and has a lot of contacts in the industry. In general his work is opinionated but backed up by facts.
shutupalready 12y ago
As a very long-time reader of Cringely[1], he's been both spectacularly right and wrong in his predictions and his inside information. However, even when he's been wrong, he's given me a completely different perspective on products or companies or technology that I hadn't thought of. Having read his many articles about IBM, he's very nostalgic about a "great" company that's failing. I think the book is passion project for him because he likes IBM (or liked the old IBM). [1] I mean this Cringely, the famous Cringely, in case you're not aware that this is a pen name and that there have been a string of mediocre writers using the same pen name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely

lwf 12y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely et http://www.pbs.org/cringely/ http://www.pbs.org/cringely/ He's been writing about tech since 1987, initially with InfoWorld.

smacktoward 12y ago

His book "Accidental Empires" (http://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Empires-Silicon-Millions-Competition/dp/0887308554 http://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Empires-Silicon-Millions-Co...), and the PBS documentary miniseries that was based on it, "Triumph of the Nerds" (http://www.amazon.com/Triumph-Nerds-Bob-Cringely/dp/B00006FXQO/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1401912503&sr=1-1&keywords=triumph+of+the+nerds http://www.amazon.com/Triumph-Nerds-Bob-Cringely/dp/B00006FX...), are both terrific, must-read/see histories of the dawning and maturity of the age of personal computing. The doc is especially fascinating now because it was made in the window of time after Steve Jobs' failure at NeXT, but before his triumphant return to Apple -- so it provides a glimpse of him humbled and circumspect, which is a very different tone than that he took in nearly every other public appearance ever. Cringely's more recent work has been kind of hit or miss, though.

hga 12y ago
It is worth "reading the whole thing" for the anecdote about how a single well intentioned but ignorant employee almost killed Intel, along with the point he makes that technical companies are less ... solid that previous ones (my word, not his). Normally only a few people at the top of a Fortune 500 company can quickly kill it; in technical companies there are a lot more.
- zizee 12y ago
  Is it possible to share the anecdote here? Or provide a link?
  - hga 12y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5293934 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5293934
kqr2 12y ago
He also did a miniseries on PBS called "Plane Crazy" in which he tries to build an airplane in 30 days. It actually has some good start-up lessons in there! http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/1998/pulpit_19980724_000578.html http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/1998/pulpit_19980724_0005...
- pessimizer 12y ago
  OH WOW. He's that guy? That documentary is one of my favorite things of all time. Ok, just went to Amazon and ordered a copy; thanks for reminding me of this.
- vermontdevil 12y ago
  that was one of my favorite miniseries. really eye-opening to the difficulties of building your own plane.
mathattack 12y ago
Has it been the same Cringley all along? I always assumed it was multiple people under that name over time.
- meej 12y ago
  Wikipedia explains. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely

smackfu 12y ago

It's not even clear that this is reporting, as much as it's opinion pieces about a particular company that he thinks is doing things wrong. A quote from the intro that seems like a bit of a red flag: "The book had to be written because writing the same story over and over for seven years hasn’t changed anything."

xienze 12y ago
As a recent ex-IBMer, I can say that Cringely is absolutely telling the truth about what's going on at IBM.
- mjcohen 12y ago
  Are you a current ex-IBMer?
  - xienze 12y ago
    Uh, OK. I use "recent" to denote that I've only recently become an ex-IBMer, so my knowledge of the company's workings are perhaps more relevant than someone who left 10 years ago.

jmsduran 12y ago

It depends on who you ask. As a former IBM'er, I can attest that many of the employees I worked with turn to Cringely and the IBM Alliance [1] for IBM-related news and rumors. [1] http://www.endicottalliance.org/jobcutsreports.php http://www.endicottalliance.org/jobcutsreports.php

mapgrep 12y ago

You don't make a quick buck on a story of the fall of a company. Business books, as a genre, are utterly dominated by success stories, because the people who buy them want to be inspired or to learn things they can imitate from winners. Yes, that is flawed logic. But it's what people tend to want. So if you're trying to make a quick buck that's what you latch on. If, on the other hand, you're following your intrinsic curiotsity you want to study fallen giants to see what can be learned from past mistakes. Now, none of that is sexy. "Fallen," "past" and "mistakes" are not words you tend to see on business book jackets. But some writers will do such a book anyway. I'm not saying Cringely is automatically to be trusted here, but it's not accurate to say books like this are often written to make a quick buck. If you want a quick buck you write something glowing and positive and no one will complain.

mindcrime 12y ago

I haven't read Cringely before. Is he a trustworthy reporter, or a sensationalist? It's kind of hard to say. I've been following his stuff since sometime in the 90's, and he's definitely brash and opinionated (at times anyway), but I don't know if I'd exactly say he's "sensationalistic". I'd probably take his work with a small grain of salt, but I don't see him as somebody who just "makes shit up" out of the air.

frede 12y ago
That's my approach as well. He was quite wrong with "Lean and mean", where he predicted the layoff of 150.000 US employees in 2007 [1]. [1] http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070504_002027.html http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070504_0020...

mikestew 12y ago

> I haven't read Cringely before. Is he a trustworthy reporter, or a sensationalist? I've read him since back in his InfoWorld days. For the most part I'd say "non-sensationalist", unlike say, Dvorak. I'd don't know that I'd classify him as a reporter, but more like a pundit. I mean, I don't look to Cringely for hard facts but more his take on the facts that we collectively know. Anyway, were it the type of thing I care to read about I'd buy his book. EDIT: "Crinkly"? Seriously, Android auto-correct? (Though to be fair, Mac OS X tried the same thing when I fixed it.)

nostrademons 12y ago

He's sensationalist, but he occasionally has some very interesting insights. I wouldn't take his word as factual gospel, but it will be an interesting read, and it may provoke you to think differently about the tech industry and look at other patterns you may have missed.

hindsightbias 12y ago

No. He's the peter schiff of the tech world Said IBM was going to lay off 150k by the end of the year like 5 yeArs ago Now he writes a captain obvious book that could apply to anyone in the industry.

jayvanguard 12y ago

He has been around a long time and has a lot of contacts in the industry. In general his work is opinionated but backed up by facts.

shutupalready 12y ago

As a very long-time reader of Cringely[1], he's been both spectacularly right and wrong in his predictions and his inside information. However, even when he's been wrong, he's given me a completely different perspective on products or companies or technology that I hadn't thought of. Having read his many articles about IBM, he's very nostalgic about a "great" company that's failing. I think the book is passion project for him because he likes IBM (or liked the old IBM). [1] I mean this Cringely, the famous Cringely, in case you're not aware that this is a pen name and that there have been a string of mediocre writers using the same pen name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely