The tech blogger who doesn’t hold back

Tabby Kinder of The Financial Times profiles Ed Zitron, a tech blogger known for his criticism of the industry.

Kinder writes, “Zitron’s sneering manifestos — delivered with the dropped Ts of his London accent and a furious rhythm that veers from performance to polemic — take aim at the ‘idiots,’ ‘conmen’ and cynical tech billionaires he believes are responsible for a ‘rotten’ economy, and they have earned him a viral following.

“Take the blog he publishes as I board a plane to Las Vegas to meet him for this interview. A 13,000-word screed about the “era of the business idiot”, it is written with an apostate’s disaffection, and argues that modern companies, especially those in the tech industry, are no longer run by competent people, but by greedy fools who have risen through a broken system that rewards superficial action over substance. It opens by calling Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft, the second largest public company in the world, ‘either a liar or a specific kind of idiot’ for comments Nadella made in an interview about the sorts of questions he asks his company’s own AI chatbot.

“More than 75,000 people subscribe to and regularly read these posts, a number that is growing. Zitron’s podcast is owned and produced by iHeartRadio, the largest radio broadcaster in the US, which says it reaches nine out of 10 Americans every month (it wouldn’t give Zitron’s specific listener numbers). The figures are remarkable because Zitron’s output is still unusual among today’s tech commentariat, which typically comes from deep inside Silicon Valley’s increasingly vocal rightwing, believes in its own genius and has often drunk the Maga Kool-Aid. See: the All-In podcast, The Ben & Marc Show and Joe Rogan’s first interview with Elon Musk, his most popular episode ever, where the pair smoke weed and chat for three hours about the future of humanity.”

Read more here.