Christopher Mims
Technology columnist at the Wall Street Journal.
Discussion
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Christopher Mims
@mims · tech columnist, Wall Street Journal
Hi, I'm Christopher Mims, tech columnist for the Wall Street Journal. My head is full of never-printed gossip gleaned from hundreds of interviews with people involved in all aspects of tech, so now's your chance to extract some previously undiscovered insight from all that.
Also I'd love to hear about what you think I should be paying attention to and writing about next.
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Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
Hey, Chris! You've interviewed hundreds of people in your career. Who's been the most interesting or surprising interviewee and why?
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Christopher Mims
@mims · tech columnist, Wall Street Journal
@rrhoover Good first question. There have been a bunch. Probably the most salacious one I can't talk about because it would literally get people's doors kicked down by the feds. And that was *before* Snowden!
But here's one that was good purely on an intellectual basis: Dharmendra Modha, of IBM's attempt to create microchips that work like neurons. He is one of the smartest person I've ever interviewed and his voice is totally hypnotic. I've subsequently read that IBM's attempt to simulate the brain is too literal, which is a shame. There's huge potential in AI, but not of the human-replacing variety. (Lots of thinkers get that wrong -- but the engineers actually doing it know the score.)
Mikkel I. Karlsen
@thekarlsen · Junior Consultant
@mims Hi Christopher. As technology becomes a bigger part of society, and it becomes increasingly more advanced AND invisible at the same time, do you think technology is contributing to the creation of a new upper-class in society? The tech-literate vs the tech-illeterate (sometimes refered to as a digital divide).
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Christopher Mims
@mims · tech columnist, Wall Street Journal
@thekarlsen No question. But I wonder if it's always been like this. My pet theory is that what drove the evolution of the human brain was, essentially, technology. Richard Wrangham gets into this in his book on how fire made us human. So I anticipate this will just continue.
Mikkel I. Karlsen
@thekarlsen · Junior Consultant
@mims @thekarlsen Thank you for the answer. Do you think that this divide is getting harder to bridge? I would argue that technology has been more simple, and thus easier to use and master, but that we're seeing increasingly complex systems and technologies, and as a result, mastering and profiting from the use of technology will get harder. The learning curve is getting steeper in other words. Or do you perhaps think the quite opposite is the case, and that democratization of technology (everyone can potentially make the next Facebook from their couch) will be what drives the development?
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Christopher Mims
@mims · tech columnist, Wall Street Journal
@thekarlsen Climate change is going to wipe out the world's poorest billion, is the short answer.
Kate
@katesegrin · Community @ Product Hunt
Who are some of the most kickass women in tech that we might not have heard of?
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Christopher Mims
@mims · tech columnist, Wall Street Journal
@katesegrin Rui Ma of 500 startups. Angela Bassas of EnerNoc. Danielle Morril. Karen E. Robinson of Google. Too many others to name, it would be a list 100 names long.
Emily Hodgins
@ems_hodge · Community and Marketing, Product Hunt
@mims what's the juiciest bit of gossip you've always wanted to share on your column but haven't?
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Christopher Mims
@mims · tech columnist, Wall Street Journal
@ems_hodge Jawbone is worse off than you think
Jack Smith
@_jacksmith · Serial Entrepreneur & Startup Adviser
Hi Christopher - of the ~1500 people that you follow on Twitter, who do you recommend that I (or anyone else reading) should follow and why?
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Christopher Mims
@mims · tech columnist, Wall Street Journal
@_jacksmith There are so many smart people on Twitter, this is kind of an impossible question. How about, all my colleagues at the Journal? :) Lots of them are retweeted at our main account: @WSJD
Lejla Bajgoric
@lejlahunts · Intern, Product Hunt
Hi Christopher! How does someone with a degree in neuroscience end up in journalism? Did you always know this would be the career you'd pursue?
A second question -- advice for people hoping to improve their writing/column skills? Thanks :)
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Christopher Mims
@mims · tech columnist, Wall Street Journal
@lejlahunts I started out as a science writer, which was a challenging but also awesome career. I just happened to be interested in tech so, very gradually, I wrote more and more about it and, voila.
As for improving your writing skills... find a place you can write where you can get access to a real hard-ass of an editor. It's the only way. :)
Theoharis Dimarhos
@theo_dimarhos · Marketing+Biz Dev at AngelouEconomics
Hi Christopher! What's your view on online schools/education? What is the missing component that would allow it to grow exponentially?
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Christopher Mims
@mims · tech columnist, Wall Street Journal
@theo_dimarhos Ugh, this is a hard one and very personal. I think the problem here is that education doesn't scale the way technologists want it to. Also, America's teachers are working pretty freaking hard already. That said, we desperately need to figure out how better to federate the kinds of things that Altschool (once it's ready) and Summit public schools are doing http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-...
Anthony Stipa
@steepspizza · PR
@mims Would you ever write a column focused on geographic regions impacting the greater tech economy? Also, when are you going to buy a @getsmartplate ?
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Christopher Mims
@mims · tech columnist, Wall Street Journal
@steepspizza Sure, I love that "rise of the rest" stuff and if my editor would pay for it, I'd do a road trip from one cluster to the next. As for the smart plate, you're going to have to remind me the terms of our bet :)
Anthony Stipa
@steepspizza · PR
@steepspizza Follow back so I can DM you details. We'll make the most of a grand Philly tour.
Mike Murphy
@mcwm · Quartz
@mims What's the most useless piece of technology you've seen this year? (Is it the Mac?)
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Christopher Mims
@mims · tech columnist, Wall Street Journal
@mcwm The Mac is pretty awful tbh
Leigh B Courtney
@lbcourtney
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Christopher Mims
@mims · tech columnist, Wall Street Journal
@lbcourtney @mcwm Kidding! I love Apple. I'm not even fooling when I say that, they're a little scattered these days but they still set the standard. This is Mike's sly reference to a piece I wrote http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-...