Comment by ojbyrne | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ojbyrne | Hacker News Reader

I don't know how anyone takes Sarah Lacy seriously. The bombast, the myth-making and self congratulation, but most especially the complete disregard for any annoying facts that get in her way.

" And Digg? Well we got Digg exactly right. We said it could sell for between $150 million and $200 million, and over the next few months and years there were several negotiations and at least one solid offer in that exact range. But Digg — unlike peers like Flickr and Delicious– said no, and its best days seemed ahead of it."

Presumably she is talking about the google talks, because that would be the only "solid offer" in that exact range. And guess what, it was google who walked away according to Techcrunch.

http://techcrunch.com/2008/07/26/google-walks-away-from-digg...

_Exactly Right_

With that cover, Sarah Lacy learned that you can sell magazines if you treat founders like rock stars or athletes. (This was not original, viz Fanning on the cover of Time 6 years earlier.)

Tech trade journalism has become about having a pat narrative that fits the current mood, not insightful commentary or facts. It's on a spectrum somewhere between sportswriting and trolling. The business is not to inform, but to mythologize.

That's why they are always either cheerleading or hating. That is why they call anyone who disagrees, or questions their integrity or competence, "haters". That's the mindset. It's how they've trained themselves to view the world.

It seems like tech journalism itself is experiencing a bubble.

Tech journalism has ALWAYS been this way. Ever hear of John C Dvorak?

Thouh the numbers could have been exaggerated, its a fact that digg could have been much more profitable had kevin thought of selling when there was a market for it. Its one of many examples of how founders enamoured with their ideas tend to push the startup past the prime. Groupon just did that a few months ago. I can see myself reading a similar headline about them a few years from now.

the diff is that groupon is a cash machine. digg never was

> Ever hear of John C Dvorak?

Come on. The man is endless fun. We used to have a copy of "Dvorak Predicts" at the office. Just about every page it was opened had something that gave us a good laugh.

edit: http://www.amazon.com/Dvorak-Predicts-Insiders-Computer-Indu...

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