[ethbr0]

Why do foundry insider articles always hurt my brain? It's like good writing and proximity to the industry are antithetical.

[andrewxdiamond]

Guessing, but possibly because almost all foundries are run by people who don’t speak English, at least not natively.

You have a longer chain of communication between you and them, so things get muddied.

I imagine that foundry news written in Chinese/Korean/Cantonese is much more well written and in depth.

[ethbr0]

There also seems a propensity for packing the maximum amount of information into every sentence.

Which leads to the narrative equivalent of a PowerPoint presentation where every slide is just plastered with numbers from corner to corner.

[sanxiyn]

I confirm semiconductor writings in Chinese/Korean are much better than those in English. (Not Cantonese: Cantonese is pretty weak as a written language.)

Somewhat surprisingly, best writings, at least at popular level, come from Japan. Japan is the highest literacy society on Earth (if you look at OECD PIAAC, there's just no comparison with anyone else) and Japanese publishing industry is extremely strong, such that real experts can write somewhat technical books on semiconductor industry and you can expect it to sell if it's any good.

[JohnBooty]

It's a fairly secretive/competitive industry, right? And with only a few major players, people who work in the industry generally don't want to burn bridges, at least if they ever plan on working in the industry again.

So nearly all of the "insider news" is going to be anonymous and read like rumor mill gossip. Especially in the English-speaking press, where there is an extra level of cultural and linguistic indirection.

That doesn't directly explain the poor quality of writing, but my guess is that the above factors dissuade a lot of talented journalists from even attempting to cover it.

(this is all speculation, of course)