He could have done that with a lot more tact - informing publishers and employees. He's non-confrontational - ok. Hire someone that isn't. Moonshots carry a risk and it's not all his risk. It's the investors, the users, the employees as well.
Re:Inside Medium's Meltdown
by boozywoozy on Monday February 13, 2017 @04:42AM
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Well said. Hindsight is 20-20 though. I imagine it's not easy to make the right calls when one is in the driver's seat.
My takeaway: It's freaking hard to be CEO.
Letting employees know they're getting laid off before they read about it somewhere else isn't really one of the great mysteries of life, and doesn't take decades of CEO/executive experience to figure out. It's sort of a basic human decency thing. It shouldn't be that hard to be a decent human being.
Re:Inside Medium's Meltdown
by anamoulous on Sunday February 12, 2017 @11:32PM
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If this comment is satire it is very good.
Re:Inside Medium's Meltdown
by SmellyGeekBoy on Monday February 13, 2017 @06:45AM
(#13634585)
Glad I'm not the only one. All I could picture was Gavin Belson on stage at TC Disrupt while I was reading this...
Re:Inside Medium's Meltdown
by idiot_stick on Monday February 13, 2017 @05:16AM
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What about Medium is a moonshot? Hero worship in SV is peaking.
From a technical level, no. Absolutely not. I can name at least 5 other free ways to blog, and maybe 15 if we throw in ones that require me to have my own server.
But finding a way to make money on blogs/internet journalism is starting to look pretty difficult. How much money is tumblr making for Yahoo? What about all the traditional media companies that should have this in the bag?
People are too used to "free" that making money on the kind of content Medium wants to be known for is starting to look a lot like a moonshot to me. But instead of the laws of physics or technology, you're going against human nature and culture. Not exactly a fight I'd want to pick.
I'm not going to argue with you about hero worship, though; it's pretty ridiculous.
Ev Williams' mission to change the way journalism is funded and operated though, that's a truly noble ideal. Yes, it's likely too ambitious to succeed. Yes, it's a moonshot. But it's exactly the kind of moonshot that Silicon Valley needs to be taking. It's exactly the kind of moonshot that the world could really benefit from. I applaud him for his decision to put his unicorn at risk, in order to build something that could truly change the world.