Friends in the press are asking me why the Newsweek story has so many techies so upset. I will attempt to explain a generalized view…
- First, the perpetuation of nerd stereotypes (wording in article, NOT Dorian himself): weird, loner, maladjusted, libertarian, odd hobbies.
- Second, it transforms what many techies think of as an important tech breakthrough into a human interest freak sideshow devoid of substance.
- Third, the story attempts to deliberately out the real Satoshi against his/her will, when he/she has done nothing wrong or harmful at all.
- Fourth, the reporter evidently made little effort to learn anything about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies, or cryptography or math or programming.
- Fifth, assuming this story is right, this so-called forensic analysis behind the story is a complete joke.
Each of these would still be offensive to techies *even if the Satoshi story were right*. But if story turns out to be wrong, doubly so. If story is wrong (not saying it is, but if), then even worse: An innocent man was falsely outed, exposed, made vulnerable, and his life was changed forever.
The broader reason this all matters? There’s a growing CP Snow-style divide between techies and non-techies. We must bridge it, not expand it. We must build communication, build rapport, build trust. Many great reporters do this every day and are heroes. More of that, less of this.
Source: @pmarca tweets – 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
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@pmarca Says 