Ask HN: Has Jeff Atwood jumped the shark?

10 points by jbillmann ↗ HN
http://blog.wekeroad.com/thoughts/open-id-is-a-party-that-happened

Scroll down and review his comments.

5 comments

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"Payment just makes everything weird" - Jeff Atwood

That one stood out.

Here is a quote for Jeff: "In Soviet Russia, there would be no Twitter, only KeyLogger..."

This one did it for me:

"I just think selling software, with the exception of $0.99 and $2.99 type phone apps, is all but dead."

There are a lot of peoples blogs that are quoted on Hacker News that have a lot better content than Jeff Atwood, but are not as well written or presented as Jeff Atwoods pieces. If something isn't well presented it tends to get mostly ignored.

The comment about selling software is a bit silly coming from someone who uses Microsoft Windows and Visual Studio (paid for software). He never jumped the shark, he has always made comments that haven't been well thought out.

There are a lot of peoples blogs that are quoted on Hacker News that have a lot better content than Jeff Atwood, but are not as well written or presented as Jeff Atwoods pieces.

I would not say Atwood is a better writer. Better "presentation" is a better description.

I think he writes in a deliberate tabloid headline, slam down, almost troll style. And he very aggressively simplifies his topics, even the ones that should never be simplified like that.

And that makes him more accessible and thus more widely read.

But more popular is not the same thing as better.