Well, I'll weigh in on this one too. Pat seems to be calling GG on his noted propensity towards hyperbolie. Whether or not Pat's specific examples constitute nitpicking, he has identified a larger trend: GG plays fast and loose with facts in order to at least color his writing. Whether GG is also using overheated language to pump certain stocks is a question for the reader to decide for himself.
Case in point: GG's last post, where he says, "You are wrong on Simon Cao's 36 patents, most of which were issued while he was at Etek, where he invented optical isolators, filters, and other WDM devices." Now ETEK is indeed a fine company, and S. Cao is certainly an entrepreneur of the first rank. But to claim that "he invented optical isolators, filters, and other WDM devices" is plain false. These devices have been around for many years, even decades. I personally know the gentleman who invented the polarization-independent optical isolator: He works for Fujitsu in Japan.
Cao holds patents on certain incremental improvements to these devices; holding these kinds of patents is normal for a decent engineer in any field, and represents a standard barrier-to-entry for other companies who might otherwise exactly copy an ETEK component.
The problem is that many readers of GG aren't actually familiar with the technologies he is pumping, and perhaps take his words at face value. That is, a casual reader of GG's prose might be left with the impression that the entire field of optical networking components sprang from Cao's brain, which is not the case. Accordingly, although we all know that GG doesn't recommend stocks ;-) some people might take the statement "he invented optical isolators, filters, and other WDM devices" as a call to load up on ETEK because ETEK invented the field.
Caveat Emptor. |
