One of my fondest memories from the first start-up I co-founded is coding in our “office” (Jim Coyer’s studio apartment in San Diego) all day and night. One day in mid-summer 1996, Jim showed Ken and I a video tape of a PBS documentary called “Triumph of the Nerds” which was and remains hilarious.
Cringely used the same material for his excellent book, Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date, which was a national best-seller. The interviews with Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and dozens of other interesting tech folks are priceless. Can’t you still hear Ballmer bellowing “K-locks!” and “Ride the Bear!” Jim?
When Occidental College asked me to design and teach a class on entrepreneurial economics, I couldn’t find a good textbook, and decided to use Accidental Empires instead. I would do it again, especially as a supplementary text. But I wonder: what’s a good entrep text nowadays? Hopefully the pickings have improved.
But I also wonder whatever happened to Cringely? I hold him in high esteem as a smart and funny tech journalist. Not quite the Mark Twain of our time (that nod goes to WaPo’s Joel Achenbach), but close. What is he up to now?
He’s blogging, of course. Even nerds can be hip.
I listen to his weekly columns in podcast form: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/rss/podcast.rss.xml
Generally pretty entertaining and insightful, though sometimes a bit heavy on the industry-insider stuff.
Posted by: Adam Wiggins | June 30, 2008 at 06:57 PM