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HBO’s Silicon Valley is over. I won’t spoil what happened for those who aren’t caught up, other than to say this fan was disappointed as hell by a boring, not-particularly-funny final episode that indulged its creators more than its viewers.
I’m more than happy to cut the writers some slack, though. This satire was so consistently spot on in its portrayal of both the pompous and ordinary characters in real-life Silicon Valley. To make a show year after year that connects not only with people like me who get most of the inside jokes, but also people who just think it’s funny, is a tremendous feat. For whatever reason, it’s not uncommon for the devoted to hate finales. Seinfeld and The Sopranos come to mind. (Co-creator Mike Judge and executive producer Alec Berg discuss their approach to the Silicon Valley finale and reminisce about making the show in this Coins2Day interview published last night.)
Silicon Valley, including even its last installment, got so much so right. It poked fun at the phony “change the world” ethos of Silicon Valley, and, increasingly, of the rest of the business world. It used comedy to lay bare the greed and arrogance and imposter-syndrome-ism that is daily life at the biggest and smallest tech companies. It will be remembered as a perfect time capsule of one of the tech world’s darkest periods—when the productivity-exploding eras of semiconductors, computers, and the Internet gave way to the epoch of icky surveillance, online hate, tech-enabled incivility, and cheap temporary lodging.
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TV shows come to an end when it’s time. But companies just get new CEOs. The New York Times weighed in on why Larry Page and Sergey Brin resigned their Alphabet (Google) operating roles with an astute observation: They never much liked running a company in the first place.
That got me thinking about what’s next for Alphabet/Google’s newly all-powerful leader, Sundar Pichai. CEO of most of the company for four years already, he now probably needs a No. 2, or at the very least an obvious successor. Every company needs a backup to the CEO. And a CEO that doesn’t have a successor hasn’t prepared the company well for her or his departure. Pichai has a powerful chief financial officer in Ruth Porat and a top business leader in Phillipp Schindler. But neither is a technical executive at what remains an engineer-led company. Cloud chief Thomas Kurian has the right technical skills, but is too newly arrived (from Oracle) and has yet to prove himself.
Adam Lashinsky
Twitter: @adamlashinsky
Email: [email protected]
This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman.
NEWSWORTHY
Be careful what you wish for. Growing tensions between the United States and China could have long-term ramifications for tech. The Chinese government has ordered that all government offices and public institutions remove foreign computers and software within three years. Only some 20 million to 30 million PCs are directly affected, but the need for adequate substitutes for Dell laptops and Microsoft Windows could enable new competition on the global market.
Much ado about nothing. It was mean and nasty, but it wasn't defamation when Tesla CEO Elon Musk called British cave explorer Vernon Unsworth "pedo guy" on Twitter last year. And the less said about this whole sorry incident, the better.
Much ado about something. After all the fighting over Amazon's HQ2 in New York City, which ended in the company abandoning the plan, there will be a larger Amazon presence in the Big Apple, after all. Amazon leased 335,000 square feet in Hudson Yards, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Five carats on my hands. If you've been saving your pennies for the new Apple Mac Pro, too bad—you should have been saving your Benjamins. The new machine will go on sale on Dec. 10 starting at the price of $6,000 for the base model, plus $5,000 for the new XDR display. Apple did not reveal delivery dates or the price of add-ons, such as more memory or storage.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Speaking of the global PC market, why does it even exist anymore? The rise of smartphones and tablets prompted many a pundit to declare that "the PC is dead." Tech columnist Ed Bott, in a piece for ZDNet, explores what those pundits got wrong.
Thanks to ubiquitous wireless connectivity and dramatically faster speeds, the cloud is no longer a curiosity. Likewise, web-based services are systematically eliminating the last traces of boxed software. By mid-decade, that trend was accelerating for Microsoft, arguably the most important company in the PC industry...The effect of that transformation on portable PCs is twofold. First, storage requirements have dropped significantly, with a 128 GB SSD sufficient for most midrange PCs. And second, wireless connectivity options have improved as Wi-Fi standards have evolved. And with ARM-based PCs and 5G mobile networks finally reaching the mainstream, we may see a rapid evolution in cellular connectivity soon.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
The Sound of Silence: Why Automakers Are Changing the Noise That Electric Vehicles (Don’t) Make By Jennifer Alsever
As Workers Become Harder to Find, Microsoft and Goldman Sachs Hope Neurodiverse Talent Can Be the Missing Piece By Gwen Moran
China’s ‘Big Gamble’: Lessons From the Bike Sharing Bust May Hang Over Its A.I. Boom By Grady McGregor
A New Report Claims Big Tech Companies Used Legal Loopholes to Avoid Over $100 Billion in Taxes. What Does That Mean for the Industry’s Future? By Erik Sherman
Facebook’s A.I. Masters the Card Game Hanabi By Jonathan Vanian
Coins2Day Writers and Editors Recommend Their Favorite Books of 2019 By Coins2Day Editors
BEFORE YOU GO
Remember last week's kerfuffle over Peloton's "Grace in Boston" ad? Actor Ryan Reynolds and his Aviation Gin brand saw an opportunity in Peloton's misfortune. They've made a great counterpoint ad—with the same actress. Drink it in.
Aaron Pressman
On Twitter: @ampressman
Email: [email protected]
