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Comment by IanCutress | Hacker News Reader

Pfft I didn't expect this to be HN worthy, but y'all are amazing

I'll still be around, doing my YouTube channel on tickover before other ventures are ready. Just need to square some things away, and I'll probably announce via Twitter next week.

Anything input always welcome!

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Regular reader here. Good luck on your future ventures!

If you are going to continue to participate in written content on the internet, please remember that RSS is not dead and there are many of us who consume content exclusively via RSS. My 2 cents :-)

Yes!

One curious question.

No names or details, but in hindsight was there ever news or review points that you felt should have been reported, but wasn't because of publishing / relationship concerns? (Read: actual, factual details... discounting pique at counterparties / PR being assholes from time to time and deserving to be blasted)

I've always been curious how that balances. Would hope the type of stuff AnandTech covers has more natural immunity (vs something like games journalism).

PS: Thanks for all your work over the years! Between you and Anand, you guided years of PC builds, starting with a Pentium IV on an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe to get my university fiber-to-the-room traffic off the PCI bus. ;)

There were stories over the years that I wanted to write but didn't get approval. Anything that might instigate a political discourse was discouraged, for example, such as a story about holding an event about wireless network connectivity in an area where locals struggled to get even basic phone service.

I mean, there have been times where PR have been rude and incorrigible. Nothing to the extent that it'd be worth putting them on loudspeaker for, as that'd gut any future relationship, and sometimes it's down to one person in the chain causing the fuss, not the culture.

Part of what I've learned at AnandTech is how these chains of command work - you're not speaking with Company X, you're speaking to Person A on behalf of company X, and sometimes the information they are feeding you goes through 15 hands before it gets to you and if there's a bad apple in that chain, it could cause it all to go pear shaped. That's also part of the 'behind the curtain' I've tried to showcase in my reporting, rather than just simply dealing with a big box with company logo on it that prints money.

Part of the balance you describe is, in my mind, simply the result of reporting on people. If you stick to the science, the research, there's less room for disagreement.

Then again, Samsung stopped sampling us smartphones because every Snapdragon/Exynos review we did, with industry standard tests and power measurements, showed Snapdragon ahead for several years. They felt it wasn't in their best interests to sample us anymore, so we ended up buying the hardware after launch. At least, that was the PR team who didn't want to talk. The SoC team still wanted our input, but the way Samsung works, it was always difficult to have those discussions. Compare that to Samsung Foundry, who have invited me to consecutive industry events to learn about new features - they loved the coverage, and the questions I ask. Same company, different BUs, different media list, different blacklists.

Perhaps it's worth a book. When I'm retired.

> There were stories over the years that I wanted to write but didn't get approval. Anything that might instigate a political discourse was discouraged, for example, such as a story about holding an event about wireless network connectivity in an area where locals struggled to get even basic phone service.

That was considered "likely to instigate political discourse"? That's just depressing.

Seems like the real reason is "don't piss off the telecoms"...

Thanks for the thorough answer!

Makes perfect sense. From outside the company, it feels like The Company speaks and acts. From inside, you realize it's actually the VP of whatever making a decision.

I always enjoyed the 'behind the curtain' aspect. It was humanizing to see that even Smart People doing Hard Things didn't always get them perfectly right, especially in the recurring "Annals of Bad Product Naming" theme.

> you're not speaking with Company X, you're speaking to Person A on behalf of company X, and sometimes the information they are feeding you goes through 15 hands before it gets to you and if there's a bad apple in that chain, it could cause it all to go pear shaped

This.

Hey Ian, thanks for all the very thoughtful content over the years. I started reading Anandtech shortly before Anand left and I remember being worried. However, in hindsight there was clearly nothing to worry about.

Your analysis helped convince me to go all in on some AMD stock purchases that ended up really saving me over past year. It’s beyond appreciated, and I’m far more knowledgeable about semiconductors thanks to you! Best of luck in your new journey

Have been reading since the beginning, it's amazing what social media can do but, thank you for all your amazing articles and knowledge! Helped me jump start my IT career and now I'm a Sr. Sysadmin :)

Just to say that this is probably one of the best written, most thoughtful, caring and lovely "exit articles" that I've ever read!

Well done and I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing you all the best.

I'll read anything you write Ian, good luck on the next step!

I always loved reading your articles and interviews. You never dumbed things down, which I’ve always appreciated.

Looking forward to your future adventures!

I guess we all already can take a guess at where you might end up haha

Cheers!

Does the guess rhyme with "sinus"?

Not "wenis"?

Thanks for all the great articles over the years, especially the in-depth CPU ones!

Are you going to join FAANG?

No, that’s so sad! You’re my favorite writer at Anandtech! I was loading the main page of Anandtech every few days to see if you wrote a new article!

Good luck! Just a curious question: How did you come up with the name of TechPotato for your youtube channel? (asking as a fan)

I'd spent a month or so trying to come up with a good name, seeing which channels had success and what the drivers were. A lot of top channels have the presenter's name in it, but the problem with Ian is that most fonts don't have serifs, and the number of times I've been put down as LAN by people who can't distinguish between capital i and lower case L is infuriating. I concluded it would have to have a cadence, a rhythm, the word Tech, and some tie in.

In the end it was a bad subtitling transcription by YT on my first in person video with Wendell. Right near the end, it auto-transcribed something about me and AnandTech as 'TechTechPotato'. The tie in with chips and potatoes is an obvious one - 'twice the tech and all the chips' is a potential future tag for the channel.

About a month in, one of the community built the logo, completely unprompted. I loved it, and bought it off him.

Microchips made out of potatoes, instead of silicon, now that's a thought! Thanks again for you insightfull content!

Do you ever miss chemistry?

Sometimes, but in retrospect, what I was doing was really basic CS on top of a field of chemistry that had had zero love at that point.

Thanks for circling back.

It seems like the brain drain from every other field into computer stuff is a real and substantial loss for our culture. It makes me wonder whether we will keep it together, in the end. Societies decaying has happened; eventually they collapse. If it happens again, it will not be confined to this or that empire.

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