Steven Levy
Editor-in-chief of Backchannel, a tech publication that lives on Medium
Discussion
M
Steven Levy
@stevenlevy · Editor in chief, Backchannel. Writer.
Hi, I'm Steven Levy. I am editor in chief of Backchannel, a tech publication that lives on Medium. Previously worked for Wired, and Newsweek and have written books on hackers, cryptography, Apple and Google, basically covering the tech world since forever. Happy to be here, so ask away!
upvotesharetweet・
Анна Савина
@bruno_and_magda · Senior editor at Insights.VC
Hi Steven, thanks for the AMA!
I'm just entering the field of tech journalism, and I know that you have a big experience in that area. It would be really interesting if you can tell how tech journalism have changed in your lifetime, what have changed in the relationship between companies and media and where everything is going. Maybe you can also name a few distinctive periods in the field?
M
Steven Levy
@stevenlevy · Editor in chief, Backchannel. Writer.
@bruno_and_magda A lot to answer there. One of the hugest differences is that there is so much of it, directed to a community that is hungry to learn everything in certain areas (Apple, I'm looking at you.) There's also a business model that encourages many many posts as opposed to just ones where a reporter actually moves the story forward. As for relationships between reporters and companies, it's much more moderated. In 1984, I visited Microsoft and someone just took me to the door of Bill Gates' office where we free-styled it for 90 minutes. Now, even a CEO of a 5-person startup has a PR escort.
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
Welcome, Steven! Who's the most inspiring/interesting person you've interviewed in your career and why?
M
Steven Levy
@stevenlevy · Editor in chief, Backchannel. Writer.
@rrhoover Well, since I've interviewed Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, etc many times, I will stray from tech on this question. Early in my career I actually interviewed Bob Marley. Besides being a music giant, he was a deeply insightful, passionate, and creative force in the world. He knew his position in that world and tried to concentrate on being himself and, as he explained to me, to promote his religious world view. It was an odd juxtaposition--I was a beginning writer and he was Bob Marley! But unforgettable.
Emily Hodgins
@ems_hodge · Community and Marketing, Product Hunt
@stevenlevy @rrhoover incredible!
Alex Finkielsztein
@alfink92
Hi @stevenlevy thanks for doing this AMA, two questions for you: 1) what top trends in mobile technology do you think we will see in the next few years (assuming that by 2020 there are 50 billion connected devices as projected)? 2) what are your favorite books?
M
Steven Levy
@stevenlevy · Editor in chief, Backchannel. Writer.
@alfink92 There are basically a single megatrend that rules everything. It's the arc of progress from PC to ubiquious Internet to hand-held device that allows, as Andreessen says, software to eat the world. OK, there's a second trend, too, of machine learning/AI where all that stuff gets smarter. Everything builds on that. As for favorite books, where do I start? Currently on volume 3 of Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson bio, and almost done Chernow's Hamilton bio (which I read in prep for seeing the amazing show). For airplane reading, I like Tom Perry, Lee Childs and spy stuff like Alan Furst. Also have read a lot of rock bios recently.
Nick Zieber
@nzieber · Community & Partnerships @whub_io
@stevenlevy this is fascinating.
Ben Tossell
@bentossell · Community Lead, Product Hunt
@stevenlevy Hey!
What are some of your favourite pieces written on the web right now?
M
Steven Levy
@stevenlevy · Editor in chief, Backchannel. Writer.
@bentossell Anything on Medium! Seriously, would have to check my history. There's a lot of great longform appearing now.
M
Steven Levy
@stevenlevy · Editor in chief, Backchannel. Writer.
@katesegrin I went to grad school in literature, and realized that I wasn't cut out to be a scholar. I liked writing but didn't really find myself until I realized that writing non-fiction was a creative outlet with the extra bonus of actually getting to see fascinating stuff firsthand, from the inside. Within weeks of deciding to do this, I was suddenly backstage at concerts, talking to politicians, and getting to rooms where the public doesn't go. And then I had the freedom to write about it pretty freely (I was working for alternative papers then, but I had that same freedom even at Newsweek.)
Andrew Ettinger
@andrewett · Product Marketing, Twitter (ex-PH)
Over the course of your career, what technological advancement has had the biggest impact?
M
Steven Levy
@stevenlevy · Editor in chief, Backchannel. Writer.
@andrewmettinger I wrote about that megatrend of great transformation. I will say that we take Google Search for granted, but it is an historic shift to be able to get answers to the most obscure questions in seconds (and now we can just bark out the questions into our phones.) But in my own career, I look back and can't believe that I wrote stories for years on that thing called a typewriter. Using the computer not only makes things more efficient but changes the writing process entirely. Though I still have worries that being forced to write multiple drafts in serial fashion made the work more polished.
neeharika sinha
@neeeharika · Google, Threadchannel
Hey Steven! Thanks for being here for this AMA. What are your daily reads other than Blackchannel articles? Any favorite podcasts?
M
Steven Levy
@stevenlevy · Editor in chief, Backchannel. Writer.
@neeeharika Thanks, Neeharika, I'm having fun. My various feeds (twitter, FB, Hirschhorn, etc) send me all over the place, so I rarely go to home pages anymore. Generally, every tech publication covers everything, whether they have original or unique reporting or not. So I look for the long-read, or the conceptual scoop. Certain writers -- Brad Stone, Jessi Hempel, etc--usually write standout stuff. As for podcasts, I have no interest in hearing a couple of my peers riff on tech news. The ones I listen to are stuff like Marc Maron, or This American Life, with original reporting or really amazing interview.
Jourdan Bul-lalayao
@jourdanb21 · Co-Founder & CTO, Jobox
Hey Steven, thanks for the AMA :)!
Any idea on what criteria a Medium article has to meet in order to get it 'trending' or featured/recommended by Medium Staff :)?
M
Steven Levy
@stevenlevy · Editor in chief, Backchannel. Writer.
@jourdanb21 The best way that a Medium article gets noticed is by interactions with people that other people follow. If you are very new to Medium it helps if you bang the drum a bit for your story. Also be smart in tagging it, and lots of people "follow" very specific tags, and then they're likely to see it. Only pretty rare posts get recommended by Medium staff, so it's not much help to say make it totally amazeballs.
Emily Hodgins
@ems_hodge · Community and Marketing, Product Hunt
@stevenlevy Thanks so much for joining us today! During your career to date, what is the best piece of advice you've ever been given? Flip side - what's the worst?
M
Steven Levy
@stevenlevy · Editor in chief, Backchannel. Writer.
@ems_hodge My wife actually gave me a great interviewing tip -- ask questions directly. Sometimes your instinct is to overthink it, and tip toe around the question (which could seem uncomfortable) you want to know the answer to. Believe me if a question is important to you, your readers want to know the answer too. The worst advice? Don't write so much about technology, it'll only limit you.