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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
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"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
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Daily Blah for... Sunday, February 12, 2006
Trusting the Court Jester With the Crown Jewels
There's a nicely measured, fairly comprehensive Time cover story on Google from old business hand Adi Ignatius. It doesn't tell me a single thing I don't know about the company and the guys, but it's not aimed at me. It's aimed squarely at the middle. The thinking is not especially deep, and it may not be clear to many whether the cover line -- Can We Trust Google With Our Secrets? -- has in fact been answered. There has been an increase in recent years in cover lines with question marks, and a concomitant decrease in the number of cover line questions that are answered in cover stories, pointing no fingers.
But Adi does capture the disarmingly childish quality of the boys and their grown-up that you feel in their presence, even as he's baffled by it. (I've seen this bafflement time and time again in my bicoastal days -- it's hard for New Yorkers to get the Silicon Valley ethic, to grasp that you can be a successful multibillionaire and care more about Lego than flashy Italian neckties, that your questing mind can think more about space elevators than how you're going to screw your competitors).
The overall effect is kind of sedative, kind of nicely soporific. Can We Trust Google With Our Secrets kind of morphs into the question: Can We Trust the Court Jester With The Crown Jewels? And the answer is: yeah, sure. Why not? He cares less for wealth than for our edification. He might do something magical with them. Let's see where he's going with this.
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