Michael On
Michael On
attention early events life math pick problem science solve speakers start women
We have to start encouraging women to get into math and science early on in life... But to just say TechCrunch is perpetuating the problem because there aren't enough women speakers at our events is just a way to get attention and not solve the problem. So do we want to solve the problem, or do we want to just pick on me?
aol ordered understood
More than once at TechCrunch, we made AOL extremely uncomfortable with things that we wrote. But they never ordered us to write or not write about something because they understood that not only would we not comply, we'd write a post about the whole thing.
applying build chance data good graham listen maximize others paul success tons
If you want to build a startup that has a good chance of succeeding, don't listen to me. Listen to Paul Graham and others who are applying tons of data to the idea of startup success. That will maximize your chance of being successful.
beyond degrees women
If we want to get beyond this whole I'm-cool-because-I-care-about-women thing, what we really need to do is we have to start encouraging women to get engineering degrees in college.
calling conscience journalist needs tech themselves
If a tech journalist needs financial security before doing what their conscience dictates, I'm not sure they should be calling themselves journalists at all.
creature government
I'm a creature of startups. For example, I don't want government interference in the startup ecosystem.
amazing companies gathering publicly stuff worried
I'm worried about privacy - the companies out there gathering data on us, the stuff we do on Twitter, the publicly scrapeable stuff on Facebook. It's amazing how much data there is out there on us. I'm worried that it can be abused and will be abused.
apple debates early endless files generally huge macs needed office operating remember transfer windows
I remember endless Apple v. Windows debates in the early '90s when I was in college. Macs were better machines, everyone said; the whole Office thing was a huge pain. It was difficult to transfer files between operating systems, and generally speaking, if you wanted to do Office stuff, you needed a Windows machine.
account major nearly
I'm nearly certain that Google accessed my Gmail account after I broke a major story about Google.
apple browser ceo closed conversation framing hardware microsoft open operating software talking terms
Talking about Apple v. Microsoft without mentioning the Internet and the browser is like talking about WWII without talking about the nuke. Framing the conversation just in terms of open v. closed operating systems, the quality of the hardware or software or who the CEO was, is silly.
claim higher
I don't claim to be a journalist. I hold myself to higher standards of transparency and disclosure.
far fewer post rely sample shows size stuff twitter
If you really care about Facebook likes, don't just post your stuff to Twitter and then rely on it being republished automatically to Facebook. In my sample size of one, Facebook penalizes you significantly for that and shows that content to far fewer people.
conflicts
Sometimes I have so many financial conflicts of interest that I can't even keep them straight.
additional amazing ask fact love people readers until wait
Some people ask why we don't just wait until we have the whole story before posting. The fact is that we sometimes can't get to the end story without going through this process... When a story is up and posted, it's amazing how many people come out of the woodwork to give us additional information... And readers love it.