Where in the World is Kathy Sierra? -- Or, the best tech writing blogger ever | Hacker News Reader

Where in the World is Kathy Sierra? -- Or, the best tech writing blogger ever

davidbarneswork.posterous.com

67 pointscruise0217 comments

Kathy did not close her Twitter account due to anything bad (unlike the unfortunate threats that coincided with her blog shutting down.)

There are lots of ways to participate in communities and conversations, and she wanted to step away from that one for a bit.

I can't point to a public URL as I got this from private conversation, but there was a public Tweet from one of her friends on this as well.

In any case, her work is GREAT and anybody from an engineer to a marketer would do well to absorb her customer-centric philosophies that make EVERYTHING clear ("your product doesn't kick ass... your product makes your CUSTOMERS kick ass...")

Google and learn :D

Thanks. I'm a big fan of her books, blog, and philosophy in general. I hope she doesn't lay low for too long, but she's given so much to the programming/online community that I guess she deserves a break if she wants one.

I don't think she thinks of it as a break, but actually something that enables her to do MORE work :D

As somebody who devoured her twitter, I do feel an absence. But I do think she's working on similar stuff/themes at the moment, as she was pre-Twitter break.

Do you know what she's working on now?

I'd always been (stupidly) dismissive of Head First until I saw her speak at FOWA in 2008. Since then I've become incredibly impressed with her understanding of how people relate to computers.

I've actually been meaning to go back through her passionate users blog and reread some of the entries, there was so much great content put up there before she closed it off due to threats.

Definitely do it. Also, there are at least 2 full length keynotes gave at different conferences around online (and many shorter videos as well).

What kind of threats?

Death threats. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6499095.stm The whole situation was weird. Though she specifically was targeted, it seemed like the site the threats came out of was a group of generally angry, lame folks who lashed out in all directions constantly. I could barely understand it at the time (though I of course would have freaked out in her shoes, as the language was so specific and graphic.)

"While blogging feuds are common, she believes the campaign against her is more likely to be because she is a woman in the male-dominated technology world."

Doesn't this seem eerily similar to the way Steve Yegge suddenly stopped blogging/removed his public presence? And then _why (whytheluckystiff) also pulled down all his online presences. It makes me wonder if some group of kids is systematically threatening lots of top bloggers.

There's "some group of kids" that acts like assholes in general, of course--"Anonymous". Not to blame them in particular, but it's not exactly difficult to get a vaguely-defined, poorly organized group of bored kids on the internet to hate you if you have any kind of notoriety.

Someone idly trolled her; she took the bait hook, line, and sinker.

Her reaction attracted more trolling, kicked off distressful public discussions of the value of her work, adding fuel for further reaction.

I've been doing this -- reading the Creating Passionate Users blog from the beginning as if it were a book. I'm up to March of 2005 so far, and it has dramatically transformed my outlook on creating software.

Not only that, it's about create passionate users, where "users" is meant as a general term, whether it be users of software, readers of books, listeners of music, etc. I've applied the concepts to my entire life, where the people I interact with are users of me. Even though I know it has already ended, I secretly hope it never does. Even the oldest entries are still relevant today. Deciding to go back and read it all is turning out to be one of the best decisions I've made.

I am evidence that her method works, because I'm now one of Kathy Sierra's passionate users!

I can imagine how it would work tying her philosophy to one's entire life. My current interest however is just building something that helps some target audience kick ass.

The recent Mixergy interview with Simon Sinek actually ties into it well, at least it did to me: http://mixergy.com/start-with-why-simon-sinek/

More power to her. I was one of her followers on Twitter, and I am extremely selective about who I follow (eg. Tim O'Reilly got the boot a long time ago). I have missed her tweets, but Twitter is not a really high value channel for me because I'm not interested as much in what's hot as in true refinement of my craft. To that end I'd rather take the time to read what she has written in longer formats.

Does Kathy's approach resonate with you? I'd love to talk to you about Packt Beginner's Guides books. Email me on davidb@packtpub.com

Just in case anyone misses it right down in the bottom, it looks like the author is an acquisitions editor with Packt and is looking for authors willing to take a Kathy Sierra approach. That might interest more people around here than the whole post does..

I didn't know she closed her Twitter account. I noticed her absence. I hope she is OK.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com