Ditherati: See the Digerati Dither, Daily

BLOGGING IS SO NOT LAST MILLENNIUM

owenthomas — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:49:32 +0000

“Blogging didn’t really start until 2005.”

Yammer CEO David Sacks, getting his reverse chronological order all wrong, Business Insider, 25 November 2011

I’M ON THE RIGHT FARM, BABY, I WAS BORN THIS WAY

owenthomas — Tue, 10 May 2011 22:16:07 +0000

“Lady Gaga is passionate, 100 percent fan-focused, and a fashion icon. At Zynga we’re at least two of those things, three on a good day.”

Zynga executive Owen Van Natta, breaking his long-silent poker face to announce a partnership between the FarmVille operator and the ubiquitously networked singer, VentureBeat, 10 May 2011

LOOK AT THIS WORKING HIPSTER

owenthomas — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 03:40:31 +0000

“The message being sent is that this is a cool, cool place to work. That matters when you are a young, hipster developer.”

SimpleGeo CEO Jay Adelson, on why his geolocation service poured beer money down the drain in Austin in search of engineers, New York Times, 26 March 2011

THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN TWEET

owenthomas — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 19:45:19 +0000

“I am working on clarity around that at the moment. I am currently trying to define what Twitter’s purpose is in the long term.”

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, struggling to write a mission statement for the microblogging enterprise that stays under 140 characters, The Telegraph, 26 November 2010

LOVE, EXCITING AND NEW

owenthomas — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 01:45:09 +0000

“I love young entrepreneurs.”

Flickr cofounder and angel investor Caterina Fake, disclosing one of her weaknesses, Newsweek, 18 November 2010

I’M SORRY, YOUR FARM HAS BEEN DISCONNECTED

owenthomas — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:24:08 +0000

“In five years, Facebook is world’s social dial tone, Amazon is your shopping dial tone, we will be your social games dial tone.”

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, on how players of its popular social games like FarmVille should really think of its constant out-of-sync errors as the 21st-century equivalent of fast busy signals, Twitter, 21 October 2010

HE’S EMINENTLY QUALIFIED TO BE ORACLE’S PRESIDENT

owenthomas — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:22:49 +0000

“The HP board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.”

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, criticizing the decision by Hewlett-Packard’s board to request CEO Mark Hurd’s resignation following an expense-account scandal involving a softcore porn actress, New York Times, 8 August 2010

ONCE YOU’RE LUCKY, TWICE YOU’RE A SHILL

owenthomas — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:08:33 +0000

“FWIW, in case anyone is wondering why I didn’t ask Elon about his divorce, it’s because I’m a business reporter.”

Volunteer Tesla Motors publicist Sarah Lacy, explaining why she didn’t ask electric-vehicles investor Elon Musk any potentially troubling questions about a divorce trial which threatens his stake in the company, Twitter, 5 August 2010

“Nothing Max Levchin ever does seems to be easy. In the fall of 2007, Max finally decided to propose to his long-time girlfriend Nellie.”

Non-business reporter Sarah Lacy, delving into her subject’s personal lives, Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good, Gotham, 2008

A MAN OUT OF TIME

owenthomas — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:33:27 +0000

“I wonder if people went through the same thing in the mid-1400s as they sat in coffee shops with their pesky paper books?”

New York Times blogger Nick Bilton, demonstrating the untoward effects of depriving a computing-device addict of his fix — in this example, causing him to misplace the origin of European coffee shops by two centuries, Bits, 2 August 2010

NO PLAN, NO POLICY, NO PROBLEM

owenthomas — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 05:23:55 +0000

“The 21st century is a really terrible time to be a control freak.”

Internet-enabled State Department functionary Jared Cohen, arguing for the abolition of his role as a policy planner, New York Times, 18 July 2010