David Pogue
Vice President and founder of Yahoo Tech
Discussion
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David Pogue
@pogue · tech columnist
Hi All, David here. As the last of 3 children, I was the one who craved attention. This might explain my presence on “CBS Sunday Morning” and PBS’s “Nova,” my columns and videos at YahooTech.com (which I founded), my column in Scientific American, my 13 years as the NY Times personal-tech columnist, the 85 tech books I've written (and rewritten), my 3 Emmies and 2 Webbies, and even the ten years I spent conducting Broadway musicals in my younger years. I'm now very happy to also have your attention for the next hour ;) please, ask me anything!
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Hash_tag_jeff
@jeffumbro · Book Marketing and PR - get in touch
Hi @pogue - 85 books is a remarkable feat, and on top of everything else it's no less than astounding. How do you manage your time so well?
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David Pogue
@pogue · tech columnist
@jeffumbro Well, I should first admit that of the 85 books, many of them are revisions--new editions of Windows and Mac books every damn year, for example. (Why couldn't I have specialized in something that doesn't CHANGE--like Renaissance painters?) Anyway, I'll admit to being MASSIVELY organized. My laptop and phone are rigged to the hilt with typing expanders and shortcuts and data detectors... My email Inbox is my to-do list and taskmaster...and my assistant Jan takes care of all the travel, contracts, and other stuff, leaving me free to do just the creative parts. I'll just say it: I'm the luckiest dude alive!
Emily Hodgins
@ems_hodge · Community and Marketing, Product Hunt
Hi David thanks so much for joining us today! What moment in your career to date a) are you most proud of? b) has most surprised you? c) would you change? thanks :)
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David Pogue
@pogue · tech columnist
@ems_hodge (a) My proudest moment was getting the NY Times gig. I was 37 years old, and the prestige and renown of the Times helped open a lot of other doors! Plus I'd grown up muttering, "*I* could write that column!" :) (b) The biggest surprise has been the viewership of the NOVA specials I've hosted! It's unbelievable how many people watch those specials--and then stop me in airports to say hello! (c) I spent 10 years out of college trying to make it on Broadway. I mean, I had fun. But from a career-of-today perspective, it was a decade kind of wasted!
Harry Stebbings
@harrystebbings · Podcast Host @ The Twenty Minute VC
Hi @pogue thanks so much for joining us today. How have you seen the writing and journalism industry change over the years with the prominence of blogging and new media forms such as Buzzfeed and Vice? Do you think journalism itself will still be such a dominant force in 30 years?
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David Pogue
@pogue · tech columnist
@harrystebbings It really looks as though journalism--if that's the right word--has split in the last decade. There are sort of two camps now: The BuzzFeed/Vice/bloggers, and the established outfits... the new guard and the old.
Newer stuff tends to be written very fast, with click count in mind. Typos, misspellings, very often just rehashes of other people's stories; interviews and research is very rare (especially BOTH sides of an issue). That's blogger journalism. It has an important function, of course, but it's not quite the same one as the more established operations like the TImes, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and so on.
I imagine that newsprint will either go away or become a rarity, a luxury. But I don't think that pro news-gathering agencies will go away; they'll just become digital. I think we'll always need someone to do actual research, curation, editing, and reporting.
Hash_tag_jeff
@jeffumbro · Book Marketing and PR - get in touch
Can you speak more on this, @pogue? I totally agree with your assessment, but I also think the money is going new school. Eventually the old guard will have to face the fact that their way of doing things is too expensive and the system needs to change. Any thoughts?
neeharika sinha
@neeeharika · Google, Threadchannel
Hi @pogue great to meet you here. What are your best resources to collect information in tech or in general? Any must reads on a daily basis? How do you relax?
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David Pogue
@pogue · tech columnist
@neeeharika Well, of course I'm going to say this--but YahooTech.com, my new site, is designed to be precisely what you describe: a daily, single source for USEFUL information on the tech world. We don't care much about corporate mergers, executive swaps, and stuff--it's "what to buy and how to USE it!" I also check in with TechMeme every day just to see what's happening in the big world.
As for relaxing: I'm a HUGE movie nut. I'm also trying to start being a runner. I hate running, but I love HAVING run. The rest of the day, I feel relaxed and awesome. :)
Jake Crump
@jakecrump · Community Team with Product Hunt
@pogue @neeeharika What kind of movies are you into? What's the best movie you've seen recently?
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David Pogue
@pogue · tech columnist
@jakecrump @neeeharika OH man, I'll take ANY kind of movie. In general, crowdsourced reviews (IMDB, RottenTomatoes) is the best thing that ever happened to movies, because I'm guaranteed never to waste time on a stinker!
Best one recently was "The Martian." The book is brilliant, but a pretty repetitive story by a first-time writer... so the breathtaking part is how they adapted it into a movie. What they kept, added, and changed.... absolutely stunning job!
Ben Tossell
@bentossell · Community Lead, Product Hunt
Hey what would the you of 2 years ago think of the you today?
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David Pogue
@pogue · tech columnist
@bentossell Cool question!
Two years ago, I was in the process of leaving the NY Times after 13 years of writing the weekly tech column--to join Yahoo, a company I'd mainly made fun of during those 13 years! But I could tell that things were quickly changing under Marissa Mayer's leadership, and the whole thing had a hot startup feel to it! I knew that I'd be trading away the old-world prestige of the Times, in exchange for a huge boost in creative freedom and resources. Yahoo basically said, "We'll give you money and people and engineers--go make us something cool!" ...which is sort of like catnip to a creative guy like me!
As it turns out, I'm now exactly where I expected and hoped to be: No longer part of the safety of the Times universe, but poised with unbelievable creative freedom. And Yahoo Tech is doing pretty well, too--most months, we're either #2 or #3 among all tech sites...after only 1.5 years!
daniellevine
@daniellevine · Docket.report
@pogue Hey David! Thank's for doing this AMA. I'm wondering, what's the best thing you've come across in the last 30 days and why? Could be anything, a product, an article, a tea, a quote. Anything! Thanks for answering.
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David Pogue
@pogue · tech columnist
@daniellevine Best thing so far is what I'm reviewing this week: the Microsoft Band 2. It's this incredible fitness band/smartwatch that's MUCH more fully equipped than its rivals. Continuous heart rate. Built-in GPS, so you can run without carrying your phone. Skin-temperature sensors. Even a UV light sensor--it'll warn you when you're going to get a sunburn!
And all of this is beautifully, cleanly designed. The original Microsoft Band had most of this, too, but it was this uncomfortable, blocky chunk. Now it curves around your wrist and you don't even feel it! (Don't tell anyone. My review won't go up on yahootech.com until later this week. :) )
Corley
@corleyh · COO @ Product Hunt
@pogue what role do you think journalists should play in creating space for women in tech? (By space, I mean so often women tend to be behind the scenes - so I think of creating space, like you might create space for people to speak-up at a meeting, etc.)
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David Pogue
@pogue · tech columnist
@corleyh That's a fraught and tricky question.
On one hand, I truly believe that it's true that there are fewer women in tech to CHOOSE from. Every time I put out a "casting call" when we want to hire a writer or editor for my own Yahoo Tech, I get 10 resumes from men for every 1 from a woman. The pool of women seems to be simply smaller.
So why is that? Is it because women are made to feel like outsiders in science and math from the very beginning--elementary school? Or is there a lower lack of built-in interest? Or both? We don't know.
On the other hand, it does seem as though many institutions sort of EXPLOIT that lower visibility... to devalue women's roles and their prominence, as in the examples you give.
I guess the one unassailable conclusion, though, is that things are getting better. The numbers of female STEM graduates are slowly improving, and prominent public discussion of marginalized women's roles in tech is shining a light on the problem.
Jake Crump
@jakecrump · Community Team with Product Hunt
What's something you've changed your mind about in the last year?
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David Pogue
@pogue · tech columnist
@jakecrump Fitbits. Wearable health trackers. I used to think they were pretty much just glorified pedometers.
I did this huge roundup of 22 different models, and really immersed myself. Learned a lot.
For example, the Fitbit lets you (with effort) record everything you eat. If you bother, it shows you this graph of Calories Consumed versus Calories Burned.
Everyone knows how to lose weight: burn more calories than you eat. Duh! But HOW would you know how many you've consumed/burned? Most people are shooting blind!
But this Fitbit graph makes it instantly visible. It was easy to lose weight, just by monitoring those graphs--really changed my entire approach to eating. I lost a few pounds, and know exactly how to eat. It's that kind of visibility into our inner biological lives that's turning out to be really profound. I now evangelize these more sophisticated bands everywhere I go!
Russ Frushtick
@russfrushtick
What's your take on VR? The future or just another 3D TV situation?
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David Pogue
@pogue · tech columnist
@russfrushtick Good question! I'll be honest: I'm a little baffled. I mean, for games, I get it--totally immersive. But I'm surprised at how pixellated Oculus Rift looks--we'll laugh at its quality in 4 years! Will we wear VR headsets for regular computing, watching movies, etc? No.