Brian Lam
14 statements across 1 episodes · 5 bullish · 3 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Oct 10, 2022 by Brian Lam · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Brian Lam's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
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Oct 10, 2022 negative
Brian Lam: Advancing at Wired required fitting a specific corporate mold
“I kind of feel like it's just like most of America, where you have to look and be from a certain background or way to advance. So for me, like, I didn't smell like an editor there. And you know, like, frankly, I'm not that smart. I'm not that intellectual. I'm…”
Oct 10, 2022
Oct 10, 2022 negative
Brian Lam argues the highest quality creative work cannot scale capitalistically
“The best podcast, the best books, the best everything is not capitalistic at scale. It still needs to be capitalistic. People need to afford their way of life and their tools, but that scale is something I'm really allergic to now.”
Oct 10, 2022 positive
Surfing ocean waves directly inspired Wirecutter's slow and deliberate publishing cadence
“The cadence of surfing too and like waves is really what informed Wirecutter's cadence, which is slow and clean and like impactful, as opposed to a bunch of like tiny little waves knocking all over the place in a messy way.”
Oct 10, 2022
Brian Lam traded Wirecutter's launch sponsorships for 65% equity and buyout rights
“So I negotiated to give up all the launch sponsorship for 65% of the site, but I also had a clause in there saying that if I didn't feel like things were going well, I could basically leave and take the entire company with me.”
Oct 10, 2022
Gizmodo pre-planned its legal defense before publishing the iPhone 4 leak
“Yeah, we went to our lawyer in-house and said, can you look this up? What would happen? How we can do this safely, legally? And we discovered these laws about returning stolen property. You can't get in trouble for it, basically, and the person who claims the …”
Oct 10, 2022 positive
Oct 10, 2022 positive
Oct 10, 2022
Oct 10, 2022
Oct 10, 2022 neutral
Oct 10, 2022 negative
Brian Lam describes Wired editors as inexperienced and hostile managers
“I would say that I learned how I don't want to manage people there, to be honest. People were not experienced managers. I remember asking one editor a question about, like, how the magazine was made, and I got thrown out of the office for asking that question.”
Oct 10, 2022 positive
Oct 10, 2022 positive
Wirecutter scaled product reviews by testing newcomers only against incumbent winners
“Now that you've got the top two or three, the next time you can introduce another 40, and you don't have to compare the new 50 to the previous 50, you just have to compare it to the current kings of the hill and see if they get dethroned. You now have tested a…”