Oh wow. What?! Just this morning I had an occasion to go thru his site/blog.
Still can't believe it. 60 is too young.
I met Om finally in 2013-ish at one of his GigaOm events in the SF Bay Area. Before that, I had been a long time reader of his GigaOm blogs and other writings at Fast Company, Red Herring, Light Reading, and elsewhere, including his book Broadbandits. He was one of the few bloggers / reporters who wrote it as he saw it; his takes were often brutally honest and pointed. He called upon the excesses of various telecom execs during the dot-com and telecom bust of 2000-2001/2. His book Broadbandits is basically an invective of the go-go days of telecom companies' incestuous deals (now seen in the AI companies too).
I had a few more occasions to meet him at dinners around the Bay Area. He was always gracious, and listened intently to what people said. As a venture partner, he focused on the people (founder) and their stories much more on the businesses.
I had heard about his troubles with his heart (~age 40-ish), which made him turn his life around to focus on only a few things that brought him joy - writing, photography, travels.
He will be missed. RIP, Om.
---
(Update: the book is Broadbandits (not Telecom Bandits, as I mistakenly wrote)
This is devastating. Om was the godfather of early tech blogging and lifted up so many people around him. He was kind, caring and compassionate.
When I first started blogging around 25 years ago, he would have been amongst the first 10 readers. He linked to me, emailed me privately with feedback, praised posts and would call bullshit when he saw it.
He was never competitive with other blogs or bloggers and was never tied up in drama. He was very often a mediator in behind the scenes conflicts and was obsessed with truth over getting the scoop.
He loved tech and startups and most of all loved seeing other succeed and didn't have a gram of resentment within himself.
Everybody from that post-dotcom crash era of tech owes Om a large debt of gratitude. He will be missed. RIP Om.
GigaOM was truly awesome at its best. Om was a special guy, I met him a few times during my years in the Bay Area. He really embodied that selflessly-helping side of the Valley: helping others with no expectations, just because it’s good. He helped one of my startups get some exposure. I keep trying to pay it forward. I will miss him.
There is a really tremendous streak of people helping people with no strings attached that I hadn’t found anywhere else I’ve lived. Especially but not exclusively on the engineering / product side - for a long time you could take a greyhound to Soma and have a couch to crash on and a job interview lined up without knowing anyone. Introductions are made without a second thought (extremely contrary to my east coast experience where to get an intro, it must be “worth” something to the third party), it is (was? I moved away a few years ago) an extremely special and collaborative place.
There’s a large group of people who want to help and see you succeed- even if it won’t benefit them directly.
I stepped away nearly a decade ago so I don’t know how true that is for the tech “scene” today, but it was really great and inspiring for a very young transplant like me.
I’m too young and too far away from the Valley to have ever met Om or been influenced by his early blogging work. However, I have avidly followed his blog ever since I came across it maybe 10 years ago. I love his writing. So crisp and honest, yet it had depth. His blog was one of the few I’d look forward to every day. I was waiting for him to return after he promised he’d do so in his last blog post. I certainly didn’t expect this. Om Shanti, Om. You will be missed.
Wow, Om was one of my first bosses. It’s hard to separate my memory of him from the era; he defined it. I have such nostalgia for both. He loved tech and startups… not buzzy tabloid stuff, but true journalism. A lot of people may not know GigaOM, but he helped shape a generation of tech.
Thanks for everything, Om. I was a fan before I worked for you, loved my time on Pier 1 in SF, and have always appreciated your steadfast love for technology.
I still remember him being one of the best writers about tech (a bit more than "journalism" in that a lot of it was of more evergreen value...) from the dotcom boom and then the peak "interesting" web apps period (2004-~2015 or so, when AJAX/etc was still new, and things hadn't calcified so much). Didn't know about his later health issues, I assumed he had just moved on to other interests naturally. RIP.
I had started blogging (on blogspot!) those days and like many others, I also used to follow Om's articles on RSS.
I still remember very clearly coming across his article where he had linked to my blog. I felt on top of the world! Because why would a renowned SV journalist link to a lowly blog?
I'm quite sure that my reason to continue blogging over all these years can be attributed to that small gesture.
Just the title here has me transported to a time and place long forgotten.
Om and I went a long way back. I tried to convince him RSS was the way journalism could escape capture by Big Tech. In retrospect, showing him the ad-blocking features of my feed reader might not have been the most persuasive...
He was a tremendously funny character. What's little known about him was he was a bag fiend just as much as a camera lover. A big chocolate enthusiast as well, until his heart troubles forced him to be more careful.
I liked the mid-2000s, gigaom and techcrunch actually had articles worth reading (not all, TC got sorta gossipy rag at one point). Om's were generally well thought out.
I remember watching GigaOm on Revision3 back in the day, I think I stumbled upon it via Diggnation... nope I think it was CrankyGeeks actually.
It was the first newsletter I actually subscribed to back in the day! Sad to hear about his passing, his appearances on podcasts introduced me to the more business side of tech where I was just a hobbyist teen at the time.
I used to be tech-journalist in an earlier avatar and Om was someone who I always turned to for inspiration and context. I learnt a lot from the way he wrote, thought and perceived the world of technology. Om shanti, I wish you a great new beginning.
I started out as journalist so I always appreciated great writing when I reinvented myself as a tech entrepreneur. There were three writers beginning in the nineties who were my tech troika: Kevin Kelly, George Gilder and Om Malik. Sadly now the only one still writing regularly is Kevin Kelly.
Really sad. I grew up reading his writing. I emailed him some thoughts on one of his blog and he immediately replied in a lovely way very recently. What a shock and a loss.
Sad. I remember first meeting Om in NYC, just as he was getting ready to move to the Bay Area and before his blogging career took off. As a side gig, he was one of the originators of the South Asian social scene (desiparty.com). Spoke with him briefly and just remember him being nice and friendly. RIP Om!
Take care of your heart, people. If you smoke, quit. If you eat a high cholesterol diet, change it. If you don’t exercise, start.
Heart disease sneaks up on you, and it can happen to anyone. There are frequently no warning signs, as without an angiogram, there’s no clear indicator in normal checkups (EKG can look normal the day before MI, coronary arteries are the same density as surrounding tissue on normal no-contrast xray).
Most people’s very first sign that they have heart disease is a totally unexpected first heart attack. 60% of them die of it, within minutes of their first symptom.
If you have familial history, be extra careful. There are new groundbreaking drugs like Repatha that can slow the progress a TON.
You aren’t special, it along with cancer are the #1 cause of non-accidental death if you make it to adulthood. It doesn’t discriminate.
GigaOm was one of the early publications that my younger self enjoy to follow, it was a good formative years. Later I knew when it got acquired that the OM of GigaOm was from its founder.
When I was working in the bay area around 2010-2013, I randomly met Om in the park. During my time there we often met in parks to talk or at meetups that he was also taking part in.
I was really enjoying our conversations about society, especially the discussions about Asimov's and Chomsky's works and ideas. He was a very wise man, a kind and welcoming spirit, and had so many interesting stories to share. I loved talking to him, at the time I was still just a dumb kid that didn't know much about the world. I'm really grateful for his kindness, he always motivated me and other people around him, while treating them as equals.
He introduced me to a lot of good people, some of which also have stayed close friends even though we are separated by oceans now. He helped me a lot, and taught me so many things about how to approach life.
You will be missed. Thank you for being such a kind person to me, your kindness left a lasting impression on me, and eversince I met you I am trying to share the same communital spirit with others that I meet.
My condolences to family and friends. Om writting has always been a reference since Web 2.0 era. Also enjoyed his photographabout friends and travel. Sad news RIP
So sad. I first met Om in 2001 or so. I pissed him off because I wouldn’t meet with him to do an interview for our startup. He always loved getting the early scoop and we weren’t ready for any publicity. In later years, we would laugh about it and I gave him the early scoop on the next one. During those years he became a friend and we would sometimes grab lunch and chat about all manner of things, from tech to family. I dished on some of what I watched go down in the dot-com bubble for his Broadbandits book. Later, I would go on to write contributed articles for GigaOm. Goodbye, buddy. 60 is too young. You were one of the best. Maybe you’re getting the early scoop in a different way.
My experience of Om was only through his written word, but a new article or post by him was a thing of joy. Not to agree with, but simply to hear a good, honest voice.
As soon as I read this, I thought, "Wait a sec, hasn't it been a little while?"
My sincere condolences to his family and colleagues.
Black bar for Om please. Truly sad for this loss, was so grateful for his impassioned writing and storytelling about our industry. You will be missed deeply Om. May there be all the pens in the world for you in the afterlife.
In my head I mistook Om Malik for Rami Malek, the actor. I was confused a couple of seconds ("What does it have to do with HN?") until I saw a picture of Om. I didn't know about his troubles with his heart. Very sad, RIP Om.
Still can't believe it. 60 is too young.
I met Om finally in 2013-ish at one of his GigaOm events in the SF Bay Area. Before that, I had been a long time reader of his GigaOm blogs and other writings at Fast Company, Red Herring, Light Reading, and elsewhere, including his book Broadbandits. He was one of the few bloggers / reporters who wrote it as he saw it; his takes were often brutally honest and pointed. He called upon the excesses of various telecom execs during the dot-com and telecom bust of 2000-2001/2. His book Broadbandits is basically an invective of the go-go days of telecom companies' incestuous deals (now seen in the AI companies too).
I had a few more occasions to meet him at dinners around the Bay Area. He was always gracious, and listened intently to what people said. As a venture partner, he focused on the people (founder) and their stories much more on the businesses.
I had heard about his troubles with his heart (~age 40-ish), which made him turn his life around to focus on only a few things that brought him joy - writing, photography, travels.
He will be missed. RIP, Om.
--- (Update: the book is Broadbandits (not Telecom Bandits, as I mistakenly wrote)
When I first started blogging around 25 years ago, he would have been amongst the first 10 readers. He linked to me, emailed me privately with feedback, praised posts and would call bullshit when he saw it.
He was never competitive with other blogs or bloggers and was never tied up in drama. He was very often a mediator in behind the scenes conflicts and was obsessed with truth over getting the scoop.
He loved tech and startups and most of all loved seeing other succeed and didn't have a gram of resentment within himself.
Everybody from that post-dotcom crash era of tech owes Om a large debt of gratitude. He will be missed. RIP Om.
Never having lived in the valley, I've struggled to understand what it means.
Can anyone share some examples?
I stepped away nearly a decade ago so I don’t know how true that is for the tech “scene” today, but it was really great and inspiring for a very young transplant like me.
https://om.co/about/
https://om.co/2020/07/30/write-like-a-human/
Thanks for everything, Om. I was a fan before I worked for you, loved my time on Pier 1 in SF, and have always appreciated your steadfast love for technology.
Om was off my radar for the last 10 years or so, and then I recently encountered an article he wrote (https://om.co/2023/02/05/why-modern-leica-m-is-a-great-lands...) about his adoption of Leica M cameras. He had a wonderful eye: https://www.photosbyom.com/
I still remember very clearly coming across his article where he had linked to my blog. I felt on top of the world! Because why would a renowned SV journalist link to a lowly blog?
I'm quite sure that my reason to continue blogging over all these years can be attributed to that small gesture.
Just the title here has me transported to a time and place long forgotten.
Thank you, Om.
He was a tremendously funny character. What's little known about him was he was a bag fiend just as much as a camera lover. A big chocolate enthusiast as well, until his heart troubles forced him to be more careful.
You will be missed.
It was the first newsletter I actually subscribed to back in the day! Sad to hear about his passing, his appearances on podcasts introduced me to the more business side of tech where I was just a hobbyist teen at the time.
RIP
https://om.co/2018/01/18/dean-allen-rest-in-peace/
That takes me back, he was always great on that show.
I long for those days.
Heart disease sneaks up on you, and it can happen to anyone. There are frequently no warning signs, as without an angiogram, there’s no clear indicator in normal checkups (EKG can look normal the day before MI, coronary arteries are the same density as surrounding tissue on normal no-contrast xray).
Most people’s very first sign that they have heart disease is a totally unexpected first heart attack. 60% of them die of it, within minutes of their first symptom.
If you have familial history, be extra careful. There are new groundbreaking drugs like Repatha that can slow the progress a TON.
You aren’t special, it along with cancer are the #1 cause of non-accidental death if you make it to adulthood. It doesn’t discriminate.
rest in peace
I was really enjoying our conversations about society, especially the discussions about Asimov's and Chomsky's works and ideas. He was a very wise man, a kind and welcoming spirit, and had so many interesting stories to share. I loved talking to him, at the time I was still just a dumb kid that didn't know much about the world. I'm really grateful for his kindness, he always motivated me and other people around him, while treating them as equals.
He introduced me to a lot of good people, some of which also have stayed close friends even though we are separated by oceans now. He helped me a lot, and taught me so many things about how to approach life.
You will be missed. Thank you for being such a kind person to me, your kindness left a lasting impression on me, and eversince I met you I am trying to share the same communital spirit with others that I meet.
Revisiting some of his old writings, I see he was deeply a humanist, and I love that. I especially liked https://om.co/2026/06/07/the-myth-the-mythos-and-the-man/
My experience of Om was only through his written word, but a new article or post by him was a thing of joy. Not to agree with, but simply to hear a good, honest voice.
As soon as I read this, I thought, "Wait a sec, hasn't it been a little while?" My sincere condolences to his family and colleagues.
He had a great creative spirit between business ventures, writing and photography.. a man of many talents.