[tommynicholas]

Every headline from Techcrunch disrupt that I have seen has been directly contradicted in some way in the video. For example, Vitalik Buterin spends about 10% of his talk explaining why not everything will be or should be decentralized. The title of his video? "Decentralize Everything with Vitalik Buterin"

[zachlatta]

This is called clickbait and is why Techcrunch is a trash website.

[rayalez]

I understand the aversion to clickbait, but using clickbait doesn't make writers trash. Some of my favorite creators use the most shameless over the top clickbait you can imagine.

That is what smart people do - they do things that work.

Why on earth would you decrease your success by 20-30%(I'm guessing) by using less appealing headlines?

Clickbait doesn't devalue the articles. It only presents problems for websites like HN, but here it is already moderated.

[Gracana]

> Why on earth would you decrease your success by 20-30%(I'm guessing) by using less appealing headlines?

Because you respect yourself and your audience enough to be honest, even when dishonesty could attract more eyeballs to advertisements?

[rayalez]

In my opinion, honesty and artistic integrity comes down to article/video delivering the promised value/entertainment.

The purpose of a headline is to get more people to click so that they receive the value you've created. If your headline is a little less compelling - fewer people will receive the value, the world will be a little worse off. So if you believe in your ideas, and care about expressing them - you do whatever it takes to convey them successfully. Utilitarian ethics.

You know you are competing with a huge amount of clickbaity entertainment, so if the things you create are high quality, it makes sense to do things that won't predictably cause you to lose.

I understand your point of view and why you'd find this distasteful, and, personally, I don't use as much clickbait as I probably should. But my opinion on this stuff has shifted over time, so I just want to express it.

[allenleee]

Techcrunch is not a trash website. They are just keeping few trash editors in front of iMacs.

[csomar]

I'd actually say the opposite. They are a trash website but they do have a few good editors.

[elmar]

Link to the actual video of Sam Altman at Disrupt SF 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqszUNk_vQU