I recently picked up a copy of Content by Rem Koolhaas and OMA. Naturally, the book has a lot about architecture. But it also has a lot about trends, ideas and the state of the world. It provides a lot of food for thought. If you see it somewhere be sure to give it a look.

I found the analysis of Wired magazine's success (and demise) very interesting. I was involved with Wired when it was still Electric Word ("the least boring computer magazine in the world") and based in Amsterdam.

Content's analysis is entirely based on demographics and consumer profiles.

During the boom, the genius of Wired was to create a vehicle where four typologies of geek could overlap.

Wired captured a moment of historical change with iconic perfection - the advent of the Internet, the triumph of the market economy, the optimism for a technologically enhanced world and the promise of a digitally fueled political revolution: all found their voice in Wired's alchemy of four distinct audiences. The geeks that ruled the '90s can be classified into 4 typologies, and Wired consistently identified the fronts on which all could unite.

Geek Typologies
Pragmatist aka Venture Capitalis
Idealist aka Hippie
Technocrat aka Organization Man
Nihilist aka Cyber Punk

Content - Rem Koolhaas/OMA

While this might be true to a certain extent. I think the Content analysis lacks insight into the main thing that made Wired interesting.

Wired was about people not computers.

Louis Rossetto, the founder of Wired, wasn't a techie or a corporation man. He was interested in trends, the future and the people that made things happen. Above all, he had the insight to see that most computer magazines of the day were essentially extremely boring, and that a market for a "people and trends" magazine about the computer business existed.

Electric Word ran up huge phone bills interviewing key people, and trying to understand what was going on. They regularly got [the late] Timothy Leary up at 3 am (California time) to hear his opinion.

Also a lot of Wired's success was due to Louis' own enthusiasm and hard work, and the group of enthusiastic and interesting writers (including Dave Winer, see also here) he gathered around him to form Wired.

When Louis Rossetto left Wired magazine and was replaced by some magazine publisher found by Conde Nast, the magazine took a nose dive. That was long before the end of the tech boom.

To reduce everything to geek typologies is really quite insulting. But it is food for thought, as I said