u/reddingdave wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
1. I haven't once read what the good reasons are for your fixation on Codesmith, or at least nothing that is unique to Codesmith and not other bootcamps (or hell, businesses *in general*). Absolutely nothing that explains the level of focus you have put on them, including paying
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
I'll try to summarize then, I do agree that I haven't clearly articulated all of it publicly:
1. I interviewed Codesmith grads who were lying through their teeth and I got fascinated by it
2. When I started poking around people were cult-like devoted to Codesmith, which got me more interested
3. By asking questions a number of former staff and alumni reached out with telling me all kinds of crazy stuff going on there, which got me MORE interested
NOTE that through this time I was very supportive of them overall. The grads were solid, the outcomes were good. I recommended people go there. I recommended they ear the sausage. I was curious how the sausage was made.
NOTE also that people on the Codesmith side thought I was a competitor trying to steal business and I also spent some energy explaining the differences and clarifying.
4. I started piecing together how the sausage was made, which means checking public GitHubs and LinkedIns responsibly. Asking people questions responsibly (e.g. be transparent upfront and if they don't reply, leave them alone), etc... and there were a number of problems.
5. I started calling out those problems as FEEDBACK because Codesmith had the winds in their sails, and they could improve a lot of things. I had concrete suggestions. And my feedback was dismissed.
6. I found security vulnerabilities, passwords and credentials in their open source projects, leaking PII on their website, and all kinds of problems I pointed out to them as FEEDBACK to improve.
They didn't improve. They imploded largely because of the market, but if they addressed the feedback maybe it would have helped. And then all the leaders talked to Lars Lofgren blaming me as the cause of most of it singlehandedly.
In my mind, collecting information responsibly isn't obsession. It's journalistic integrity. If I didn't try to cross my t's and dot my i's then I would indeed be a crazy person with wild accusations. I have made a mistake now and then (that I promptly corrected) but if I was actually obsessed I probably wouldn't have made.
I think my bar for speed, my impatience, my expectations around the speed to fix "unbreak now problems" is maybe misaligned with many, but it's far from an obsession.
I'm obsessed with my company and my work and that's where my time actually goes, as anyone who works with me or any engineer that worked with my company would clearly see.