It's tough being a journalist, especially if you're covering technology and living in Silicon Valley, because it seems as if everyone around you is getting fabulously rich while you're stuck in a job that will never, ever make you wealthy. What's worse is that all these people who are getting rich don't seem to be any brighter than you are and in fact many of them don't seem very bright at all. So of course you get jealous. And then you start thinking maybe you could find a way to cash in on this gold rush. But how do you make gobs of money when your only marketable skill involves writing blog posts? [...]
Well, this is the model I was thinking about, but it turns out someone beat me to it -- it's called CrunchFund, and in the past few days we've seen the machine in action, and it is indeed a beautiful thing. [...]
This is what now passes for "journalism" in Silicon Valley: hired guns and reformed click-whores who have found a way to grab some of the loot for themselves. This is perhaps not surprising. Silicon Valley once was home to scientists and engineers -- people who wanted to build things. Then it became a casino. Now it is being turned into a silicon cesspool, an upside-down world filled with spammers, liars, flippers, privacy invaders, information stealers -- and their grubby cadre of paid apologists and pygmy hangers-on.
Scum and villainy.
Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool
14 Responses:
Dan Lyons is a hack and has no credibility. I offer MG's takedown of Lyons' scumbaggery instead
I don't read any of these people, so I have no idea and don't really care who's the bigger douchebag -- but if that link you posted had any actual content in it, I failed to perceive any of it.
MG has even less credibility than Dan though.
Pointing out that the pot is calling the kettle black doesn't wash away the kettle's pitchy hue.
Dan Lyons calling Siegler and Arrington talentless, ethics-free scam artists: CORRECT!
Siegler and Arrington calling Lyons a talentless, embittered hack: ALSO CORRECT!
Someone make me some popcorn, I'm hoping they go a few more rounds.
Lyons is very far from talentless.
I'm glad you enjoyed his one-note gag.
Worked for me, for years.
If he had talent, we'd already be reading zombiesteve.net.
I've read a few "rebuttals" on this and none of them have any content, just name calling and shame tactics. It's worth noting that everybody calling Lyons out has a personal stake in the silicon valley zoo. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the idea - post something controversial and watch the feeding frenzy make his point for him.
I've been boots on the ground in silicon valley for 5 years now and I couldn't agree with Lyons more about what silicon valley has become, even in the short time I've been here. It's especially telling that Google, who once exemplified everything positive in a startup, has become just another company in the running for the title of "The Next Microsoft."
ahh, people I'm only barely aware of having a shouting match.
It's like a saturday night in the centre of town, only on the internets
s/, only on/:/
Curse my lack of knowledge of regular expressions :(
Sorry, that was to "correct" your second sentence above to "It's like a saturday night in the centre of town: the internets".