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The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
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Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
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Daily Blah for... Monday, March 18, 2002
The Brand X Boom
Spent the weekend 7,000 ft above sea level in the town of Truckee near Lake Tahoe. My hearing improved drastically -- if perversely -- on the journey back, as we drove down to sea level. Return to find that Brand X, an affectionate term for our younger rival magazine, has effectively declared the dot-com bust over on its front cover. How nice. I'm sure all my out-of-work technology-trained friends will love to hear their unemployment is a fallacy. There's nothing wrong with Steven Levy's prose if you chop it up into parts: yes, there are lots of cool little start-ups noodling away at cool new ideas in Silicon Valley, just as there always are. It's putting these pieces together and declaring a new golden age of technology that smells a little suspect; in particular, handing Steve Wozniak the palm d'or before Wheels of Zeus has even left the runway is laying it on a little thick (just because Woz is working again does not mean there has been a tech rebound. It means he got bored with teaching).
Then there's the strange and somewhat heartless supposition that the dotcom crash was "the best thing that could happen to technology." This would be true if every dotcom that crashed was a gesundheit.com or a boo.com or a BBQ.com. But a lot of good companies got dragged down in the stampede; companies with valid business plans and unique services; Productopia.com, Reel.com, Adcritic.com. Many other good ideas were drowned as we heard the giant sucking sound of VC money heading south. If only Webvan had survived, we would have some interesting competition and innovation in online groceries; now Safeway.com and Albertsons.com stand astride the market like typical old-world companies, developing their services as slowly and expensively ($10 delivery?) as they like. And thousands and thousands of really smart, talented people were thrown out of work. Their contribution to the economy: zilch. Tell me again; how are things looking up in Silicon Valley if most the great engineers and project managers are fighting each other for an assistant manager position at Peet's Coffee? The layoffs still go on; if they didn't, F*ckedcompany would be out of business. Call it premature trendspotting: The incessant urge on the part of news organizations to notice something before everyone else does can sometimes lead to mirages, especially if one is afflicted with true believerism. I have no doubt that the turnaround will come, that the technological winter will end. But we're still in the season of gales and blizzards; it's a bit early for cover stories on the first daffodils buried under the snow. You're going to hurt your authority when the sun finally does shine.
Speaking of the legions of laid-off dotcommers, here is an excellent day-in-the-life flash animation.
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