alt Hacker NewsTell HN: Bob Cringely has died
I heard from a friend of the family that Bob passed away in his sleep early Saturday. Very sad news. Bob, who's real name was Mark Stevens, was an early employee of Apple and was best known for his PBS documentaries, especially "Triumph of the Nerds". He will be missed.
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I liked his "Plane Crazy: Building a Plane in 30 Days" on PBS.
Watching him try (and fail) to build a composite airplane says so much about the allure of modern techniques (I won't spoil the end, but old-school gets the last laugh). I've been less than enthusiastic about modern composites ever since seeing this show.
Bob's attempt (and short temper) reveals a good deal of hubris on his part.
The documentary is a fascinating failure and a masterclass in attempting to salvage a show when the whole premise for the show completely collapses.
If true, this is very sad. I’ve read Cringely’s work for around 20 years — not as long as some here, I’m sure — and always appreciated the perspective of someone who had been involved in the industry in some capacity since the beginning.
Unfortunately, the site became more difficult to read in later years when it turned out that a lot of what he was saying was evidently false. Even more so when he switched over to AI-generated content.
Still, Triumph is an amazing documentary that I’ve watched many, many times.
He was a very entertaining blogger! RIP.
However, he was also ripping people off and making up stuff: https://www.jeremyreimer.com/rockets-item.lsp?f=true&p=272
Rest in peace Robert X. Cringely. For those interested, the documentary "Triumph of the Nerds" is available on the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/triumph_of_the_nerds
I was a big fan of this guy's work. Great documentaries. Triumph of the Nerds was a great watch — I gifted this to several people. I also watch the lost Steve Jobs documentary every few years for inspiration. Accidental Empires was a great read — I always think of Larry Ellison doing the NYT Crossword puzzle when I read about all the Paramount drama. He'll be missed.
A shame. I encountered his work in a couple of places (with the caveat that I don't know which Cringely was which):
PBS website: He wrote a column that their site no longer hosts, but the Wayback Machine has it snapshotted frequently, including just after his final submission for the outlet in 2008: https://web.archive.org/web/20081223220604/http://www.pbs.or...
NerdTV: In an era of nascent web video, he produced long-form video interviews with tech types, and clipped what might now be called "Shorts/Tiktoks" from the conversations, pulling out the of "the juicy bit" and "the nerdy bit". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NerdTV (h/t to u/Keyframe)
And obliquely, Cringely's columns or videos were the first place I recall hearing about foveated approaches to video compression for streaming. I thought it sounded like a terrible idea, but I guess Valve delivered, 20 years on, using the technique to good effect with the Steam Frame. Chalk one up for Cringely; RIP.
Sad.
Early employee at Apple who was offered to be paid in stock. He “held out for the cash”.
I really like the triumph of the nerds series. Getting bill Gates, Balmer, Jobs and those IBMers to explain how it all came together and how MS who didn’t have an OS ended up getting one to sell to IBM.
The transcripts are a good
My favourite article he wrote was "Stranger in a Strange Land", about Homer Sarasohn (not Deming) rebuilding the Japanese electronics industry -- and to some extent, culture! -- after the war.
https://web.archive.org/web/20001015151303/http://www.pbs.or...
Incredibly sad news. I first learned of him and watched his documentaries just a few years ago. It’s difficult to understate, if you happen to be a tech nerd, how much fun “Triumph of the Nerds” and “Nerds 2.0.1” are to watch, even nowadays.
That is terrible. I used to love reading his articles over the years. Here is a tribute site to his work - https://i-humanoid.netlify.app/i-humanoid/
When searching to verify the veracity of this, this post made me laugh: https://www.cringely.com/2020/01/23/not-dead-yet-what-bob-cr... (Circa 2020).
Sad to hear that, apart things already mention I'd like to point out his NerdTV interviews - especially Dan Drake one (Autodesk co-founder). I always suspected, but that interview kind of validated how Autodesk went after competition as a strategy (to buy them outright). You can watch them all here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NerdTV
That's terrible. I used to love reading his articles. Here is a tribute site for him - https://i-humanoid.netlify.app/i-humanoid/
I want to offer my condolences to his family and business partner(s). I read his columns for many years. Loved his style and smarts. I particularly enjoyed reading some of the comments and his answers, often as enlightening as the column itself. This sudden death could happen to me, so I am more appreciative of being alive today.
I loved the book Accidental Empires, and it inspired me to become a programmer. RIP Bob. You were the best.
This is a famous documentary from him: https://youtu.be/toSRmKKiosQ?is=kj1fkHSfpGsLoBVf
RIP. Damn and Dvorak died earlier this year? What a sad year for legendary computer columnists.
I remember religiously reading his Infoworld columns back in the day.
His “Lost Interview” with Steve is incredible.
Listening to Steve talk about the benefits of object oriented programming is something else
I all Bob would do would be writing Accidental Empires, and inspiring Simon Wardly to adapt his Commandos, Infantry and Police into Pioneers, Settlers and Town planners framework, it would still be enough to achieve immortality. Thank you, Bob!
https://blog.gardeviance.org/2015/03/on-pioneers-settlers-to...
Sad, and to go in a similar way to his son who he spoke about this year on his site, what are the chances.
A great a free thinker.
Reading accidental empires is how i learned that the tech industry even existed
I truly enjoyed his Triumph of the Nerds. I thought he had a pretty good handle on tech and looked forward to his opinion pieces. He regularly had a different take on tech, which helped to broaden my views. RIP, you will be missed.
https://www.cringely.com/bout-bob/
On How You Can Reach Him to Tell Him He’s a Dipstick
Robert X. Cringely
(707) 525-9519
(707) 525-9517 (fax)
[email protected]
Bob, bob, bob...you freeeeking dipstick.
You're not supposed to die that young. That wasn't part of the deal.Future generations will have a better understanding of the personalities and history of the personal computer industry because of his work.
Somebody who has chronicled and commented on the business for a long time. I enjoyed his work, and chuckled at some of the for-and-against it caused. Sorry to hear and I hope his family is ok. There’s a whole lotta water that’s passed under the bridge that we’ve not really noticed.
As far as I've been able to find, this is the last thing that Bob Cringely wrote publicly, 79 days before he passed away:
I read Accidental Empires when I was younger, RIP Bob.
Damn. I've been re-watching his documentaries recently. He was one of the greats.
Loved his book, and documentary.
BTW, there are 2 "Robert X. Cringely", one owned by InfoWorld, one owned by Mark Stephens.
one of his articles that i read that i remember came out in July 2003 titled "The son of napster" [https://web.archive.org/web/20040619084432/http://www.pbs.or...].
His death was far too early. It's hard to explain how much influence Cringely had over the years, how many minds were influenced by him - and how much his humor has been assimilated into the tech industry. He will be missed.
Dang - black ribbon please
I remember watching him on PBS. There was something great about turning on the TV and finding someone who thought computers, and the people behind them, were interesting enough to spend a whole evening on. Sorta rare at that time.
De mortuis and all that, but someone has pointed out the poor track record of his later initiatives and I think the reasons for those failures are an important part of the picture. Look at his last few blog posts, outlining a radical alternative to LLMs. Read closely, and at the heart of that idea we find "assume enterprise search". But the willingness to consider radical alternatives is part of the right way to think.
Ah man...
Hadn't heard from him in years. Then he posted that he was going to start writing again and I was so very glad to hear it... And now...
The dude was to me what tech journalism was. Between Cringely and Dvorak leaving us, we're losing the old guard. I'm bummed.
Triumph of the nerds is the reason I work in high tech. RIP to a legend.
Had to login to pay my respects. His blog "this rag" as he used to call it was foundational in my professional life. And I still typed cringley.com by hand to read his posts. He had a several tragedies in his life... But now his soul can be with his children.
RIP hacker from a bygone era..
Oh man...this one hit me tonight! I remember watching Triumph of the Nerds in high school and loving every second of it! I read his column on PBS for years and followed him to his blog later...and kinda fell off as I fell off of so many things. Bob was influential in turning my childhood passion for computers into my career.
It's especially tragic for his family as Bob had announced that his son Cole, aged 21, had passed away back in April. Condolences to all those who knew Mark, Cole, and their loved ones. RIP.
Rest in peace Bob. One of the great early tech writers. The feeling of his writing -- the blend of fact and opinion and sense of humor, and more than anything the sense the really cared -- always felt to me like one of the seeds that developed into the blogosphere.
I've got fond memories of reading "The Little Engine That Could", his article on the wonders of mesh networking, potentially cheaply by flashing Linksys WRT54G with OpenWRT
>...the WRT54G with Sveasoft firmware is all you need to become your cul de sac's wireless ISP. Going further, if a bunch of your friends in town had similarly configured WRT54Gs, they could seamlessly work together and put out of business your local telephone company.
https://web.archive.org/web/20040608142623/http://www.pbs.or...
I greatly enjoyed his book Accidental Empires https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidental_Empires
I remember my mother buying me "Accidental Empires" from a bargain bin at the local bookstore as a tween. I must have read it multiple times. Dot product that with "The Cuckoo's Egg" and any technical books and magazines I could get hold of, and you have the formative reading of my career.
I had thought he had passed away earlier this year, but it was John C. Dvorak, who wrote the Infoworld industry news column before (/contemporaneously with) Mark Stephens, who adopted the name Robert X. Cringely. https://www.wired.com/1998/12/cringely/
John Dvorak passed July 20, 2026 Mark Stephens/Robert X. Cringely October 3, 2026
RIP Bob. Triumphs of the Nerds and Accidental Empires captured the time it was written and the future.
First time i’ve heard of bob (born late 90s I guess). Had a great afternoon watching his videos. Thanks for the fun, best wishes to the family.
Triumph of the Nerds was my introduction to computer history as a kid. I had a dentist that learned I was into computers and he borrowed me his VHS copy. I probably would have had a very different world if I hadn't watched that, because it really turned me on to the potential. Thanks Bob (and my dentist).
Damn. I've loved Bob and his writings ever since I read Accidental Empires as a kid. He went through some crazy shit over the last few years (lost his house, almost blind). And when he started blogging again this year (https://www.cringely.com/2026/05/27/where-the-heck-have-i-be...), the stories got even worse (lost his son, heart attack, stroke). RIP.