barracuda networks, cloud connected security and storage solutions that simplify it. city national bank, providing loans and lines of credit to help northern california businesses grow. scott mcgrew: good morning, everyone, i'm scott mcgrew. i have no guests this week so that everyone can enjoy the holidays, including our very hard-working crew behind the scenes. instead, we bring you an end of the year highlight show. we're not going to call it a best of because all of my guests are the best, just as all my children are my favorite. that said, we'll start with something we've been talking about all year. are we in a bubble? we asked that of legendary silicon valley investor mike kwatinetz. mike krey: i guess the macro question would have to be--obviously you went through a pretty big tech bubble.

and you know, for months i heard people saying, "no tech bubble, no tech bubble." now, i'm starting to hear tech bubble coming up more and more. what's your take on that? mike kwatinetz: well, it's interesting. in 2001, '02 when it burst, people said this would never happen again. and i knew it would happen again because it happened before, it would happen again. now, it's different now. it may not continue to be different, but right now, i think we're in 1997 equivalent, '98. not in 2000, 2001. and the reason is, if you look at companies, for the most part there's real value behind the valuation. so, the question is, are they slightly overvalued? maybe, but in 2000, we got to the point where there was no value behind the value. scott: right, the company's clearly not making money. mike: not just not making money, not even having revenue and having a billion dollar valuate. now, we have some of those. scott: do you have some in your portfolio? mike: none that have gotten to a billion.

scott: one of the biggest movies of 2015 was "the martian," starring matt damon, based on a book written by silicon valley engineer andy weir. scott: starting with giving away chapters of his book for free on his website, he ended up first with one of the most popular books of the year. in fact, it did go to number one on the new york times bestseller list, and then this happened. male: at 4:30 a.m., our satellites detected a storm approaching the ares 3 mission site on mars. the storm had escalated to severe, and we had no choice but to abort the mission. but during the evacuation, astronaut mark watney was killed.

mark watney: i'm entering this log for the record. this is mark watney, and i'm still alive, obviously. i have no way to contact nasa or my crewmates, but even if i could, it would take 4 years for another manned mission to reach me, and i'm in a hab designed to last 31 days. so, in the face of overwhelming odds, i'm left with only one option. i'm going to have to science the hell out of this. scott: andy weir is the author of "the martian," a great book turned matt damon movie premiering this october. wired magazine says, in its review of the book, quote, "it's the most riveting math problem you'll ever read." thanks for being with us. i enjoyed the book. i am equally fascinated with how it started. but first of all, talk about just the--it must be surreal to see what was in your head out on a screen. it must be bizarre. andy weir: oh, it's like--it's like you said in your intro. like, everybody fantasizes about this stuff when you're writing a book, but you never really think it'll happen.

and then now it's just like, "oh my god." scott: so, i mean, you gave away your book on the website. and then you tried to do it with kindle with--you were just going to give it away on kindle. and amazon said, "no, you got to charge something for it." and it turns out to be this blockbuster success. andy: yeah, yeah. and like, it was a hobby that i was doing. i was just posting it chapter by chapter on my website. and then my readers said, "well, can you make an ebook version?" and then i did that, and they said, "well, i don't know how to download an ebook version. can you put it up on amazon kindle?" so, i did that, and kindle said, "you have to charge a buck." so, i did that. and then it got up to the amazon bestseller list, and that got the attention of random house, and then fox. it just kind of, like, snowballed. and i have no idea what i did right. jon swartz: this was your third book, right? andy: yeah, it's the third book i wrote. it's the first book that i ever published. and so, yeah, the earlier two books, not so great. jon: what were they about? were they related? i mean, were they related to this at all, or were they totally different? andy: completely different. well, the first one was a dystopian future kind of story,

and it was like so bad that--fortunately, i wrote it before the era of the internet, so there are no digital copies. no one will ever find it. i destroyed all copies except for one that my mother has, and she won't tell me where it is. and then the other--the second one was okay. it was sort of a space opera kind of thing. and it just wasn't well written. it had a decent plot. alice truong: when were you able to quit your day job as a software engineer? andy: that was april of last year. so, it's been about a year and a half. i didn't quit my job as an engineer until it was clear that "the martian" was going to make enough money to support me. scott: well, and alice brings up an interesting point. you're a software engineer. you are not a rocket scientist in any way. and you are--were not a writer. in that way, it reminds me a bit of tom clancy, who writes this book, i mean, the first one about "the hunt for red october." he was an insurance salesman who did a lot of research about submarines. and in your case, the same thing, right? you did a ton of research about, "okay, i got to get this guy to mars. he's got to be on mars." you just researched it all. andy: yeah.

well, also a lifetime interest and hobby of, like, space travel. and so, it's easy to learn about things that you're passionate about. scott: blogger michelle tam caught our eye in 2015, and she documented the popular paleo movement. her blog, nom nom paleo, now attracts a big enough audience that she was able to quit her job and blog full-time. scott: her expertise is paleo. each day, she cooks, takes pictures, and posts to nom nom paleo. paleo is the so-called caveman diet, though paleos are quick to point out it's more than a diet, it's a lifestyle. with that in mind, the new york times says michelle tam is, quote, "something of a martha stewart of paleo." now, if you're going to be the voice of a lifestyle, you need a cookbook, and indeed michelle has that, written with husband, henry fong. "nom nom paleo food for humans." the wall street journal calls it the worst designed cookbook of the year, and then they recommended it as

a christmas present as well. now, i don't think it's a terribly designed cookbook. it's full of cartoons and great pictures. and you're a cartoon as well. it's an entertaining cookbook. michelle tam: i actually loved that that's what they said when they recommended it. it was like it was sucky, yet awesome. scott: that should be on everybody's headstone, yes. michelle: and it was written by christopher kimball, who i adore. and i was like, "as long as he's seen it, that's all that matters." scott: christopher kimball of "america's test kitchen," who, let's face it, is a bit of a precise fellow. i mean, that's kind of his shtick. so, this is kind of not his speed. it's all higgledy piggledy for him. michelle: and i almost think he wanted to say--like i'm hoping he really loved it, but he's like, "oh, but it's all terrible. but i still like it." scott: he clearly loved it. hanna kuchler: so, i'm really interested in the idea that you, you know, you quit your job. how many hours a week do you work on this? because i get the impression from looking at some of the stuff you do this isn't a sort of do stuff in my pajamas

and blog occasionally job. michelle: no. so, i mean, to be perfectly honest, nom nom paleo is a joint effort between my husband and i. but i'm the face. and i always joke that we're like milli vanilli, but i'm like the people dancing out front. but it is a total mom and pop operation. we work on it all the time. he actually has--he's kept his day job. but we would work on it--we work on it all the time, on weekends, at night when the kids are asleep. and so, it's many hours. i don't even think--like, as soon as i get off, i'm going to be checking my social media. scott: you might think people who get fired do not want to talk about it, but sometimes they do want to talk, at least on this show. two of our guests were fired from high profile jobs, one at groupon, the other at men's wearhouse. and you'll hear from them after the break.

scott: welcome back to "press here." if you've never seen our show before, you actually picked a really good week to start as we show you highlights from 2015. each week, two reporters from national publications sit down with me to interview newsmakers. and earlier this fall, a company you've probably never heard of launched a new ad campaign, not to sell you anything, but to advertise for engineers.

that's how it works in silicon valley, you have to entice new employees to work for you. so, these ads went up in places like bart stations, ads that promised potential new employees a fun work environment, the tools to get things done. this one says, "my team is great, and everyone is smart, creative, and hilarious." this billboard in particular came under criticism, not for the message, but for the model. people of both genders questioning whether the woman in the ad was, well, too attractive. some were critical of the company, saying it was a blatant appeal to men. others wondered if the picture was an accurate representation of a woman engineer. well, it is. it's a very accurate representation because the woman in the ad is an engineer. scott: isis anchalee is a real person, an employee roped into a last-minute ad campaign who never expected such a weird response. now, it's what she did next that got our attention.

joined by mark milian of bloomberg and laura mandaro of usa today. so, the ads go up. tell us the story. the ads go up, somebody on facebook gets pretty critical of you. isis anchalee: so, the ads actually went up early. they weren't supposed to go up until sunday. and all of a sudden, on friday, i was getting messages from people taking photos of it, like, "hey, i saw your face at the bart." and so, people were actually having facebook discussions about the validity of the ad, or if it was possible that i could actually be what my title said. and so, you know, i just--i went to write this blog post on saturday just as a means to point people that were talking about the ad in that direction, like, "hey, this is my response to everything that you're saying." and so, that's how everything got started. scott: it is funny when somebody starts talking about you that, when you start to add into the social conversation, you'd be like, "no, i'm the person. i'm the person in the sign. i'm a real person."

isis: yeah, it's really interesting because, you know, when i look at ads, i don't really think twice about them. i think that they're there and they exist, but i don't read very deeply into them. and so, it was actually really shocking to me that people seemed to really care. scott: one of my all-time favorite apps is something called detour. it's a gps-enabled tour guide of san francisco and other cities. so, you put in your ear buds, and then you listen as an expert takes you on a tour of the castro or down market street, as if he's standing right next to you. the app was invented by someone you'd least expect, andrew mason, the guy, the kid really at the time, who created groupon. scott: what a pivot. i mean, what a strange pivot. you're a tour guide app operator? andrew mason: i hear that a lot. i don't know exactly what people expected me to do next. scott: not tour guide app operator. andrew: like build vr coupons or something like that.

quentin hardy: space lasers. scott: coupons by drones. andrew: the trick of groupon was it was all about giving people this excuse to get out of the house and experience the world, right? if we would, for 24 hours, give you a discount on skydiving or something like that, and you would say, "gosh darn it, if i'm ever going to get up and do skydiving, like now is the time. i'm not going to get another opportunity for a deal like this." quentin: and among tech companies, it and you had a big humanities basis. there was lots of writing involved, lots of people staffing and writing up great reviews, and come-on's to do things. and your own background was somewhat that way, right? andrew: yeah. and i mean, i have a degree in music, which especially whenever detour was doing bad in the public markets, you or colleagues would always--oh yeah, sorry, groupon, yeah. oh good, i'm messing up in the other direction now. this usually goes the other way. scott: we're going to give you a break because you're a music major.

andrew: so, what were we talking about? we were talking about-- scott: your background. which you actually-- andrew: with groupon, the writing built the brand, but in some ways it was an indulgence. it felt like something that was an additional thing that we did to make it fun for ourselves and for our customers. and what we're doing at detour, it's absolutely the core. it plays the same role that, like, the sales people played at groupon. like, they're out front lead--it's all about the content. the technology is very important, but it's just tech--it's just table stakes for creating wonderful content experience. scott: andrew started working on detour after he was fired as ceo of groupon. and he was real honest about it. he was fired. so too was george zimmer, the founder of men's wearhouse, fired very publically from the company he started. and he was quite honest about it as he visited with us earlier this year. quentin: let's spend a minute on the awkward thing. what was it like to build a business like that and

then get cut off that way? george zimmer: well, of course it was shocking and discouraging and disappointing. but really what i've learned since it happened, it's been 2 years now, is it was a great learning opportunity for my family. when i came home that evening without a job, i saw everybody afraid to say anything at dinner. and i said, "hey, look, it really doesn't matter when you get knocked down. what matters is how you get back up." and at the time, i didn't know how i would get back up, but i knew i would be able to figure it out. michelle quinn: and is this business idea your back up, getting back up? george: this is getting back up, you bet. michelle: and how'd you come up with it? george: well, i've had a long experience in my previous career with tailors, and now with online apparel becoming so dominant, i just really put them together in

a high touch, hi-tech way. scott: we're back with more highlights from 2015 when "press here" continues.

scott: welcome back. i'm quite proud to be from the south bay, san jose, the capital of silicon valley. it says so right on the side of every city vehicle. even the trash cans stamped "the capital of silicon valley."

but much to our surprise, san jose's mayor is thinking of changing that. scott: i didn't grow up, but i spent a great deal of my life in the south bay, and there is this feeling sometimes of the little brother status of the south bay. i'd like to point out to anyone who doesn't know it that san jose's the largest city of the three, oakland, san francisco, and san jose. are we still the capital of silicon valley, though? sam liccardo: you know, i'm not sure, scott, that we ever were the capital. i think we are the urban center of silicon valley. scott: does it still say capital of silicon valley on the side of the garbage trucks? sam: it does. i didn't make it up, but-- scott: will it still say capital of silicon valley on the side of the garbage trucks? sam: until somebody gets around to changing it, yes. scott: you might change it. sam: i might. i think--look, you know, silicon valley is in 30 places at once throughout this region. i think we can be the vibrant urban center of silicon valley,

and that's what i aspire to make this city. i think we've got a lot to brag about, but we've also got a lot of work to do. and i'm not eager to start throwing out monikers like capital because i'm not sure they ever applied. michal lev-ram: so, what's your pitch to, you know, young people that are moving north? i mean, you've got one right here. scott: yeah, what's your pitch to mark? mark: we've got a ton of--i lived in san francisco. michal: that's where young people want to live now. sam: yeah, it's not now. i mean, i moved to san francisco in 1997, right? i mean, this is what young people did for many, many years. if anything, the trend is probably slowing, mostly because there's no room and people are tired of paying $4,000 a month for a studio. mark milian: i see all these high rises showing up now in hayes valley and the mission. sam: yes, and you'll keep paying $4,000 a month. look, san francisco is a wonderful city, and it'll continue to be a wonderful city. i think what we're creating right now in downtown in particular is pretty unique. you see a lot of high rise construction happening there. scott: and by this, you mean san jose.

sam: yeah, san jose, forgive me. and what we're seeing is a real revitalization there in the core, a lot of people moving in. a whole foods just opened. we've had 40 tech companies move in in the last year and a half. scott: we're looking at some of the highlights of 2015, and no new year's party would be complete without a lexicographer. here's erin mckean trying to document nearly every word in the english language. erin mckean: english is great. english is this shared delusion we have. we all agree about what english is. and really, lots of people do believe that if it's not in the dictionary, it's not a word. scott: purists. which let me point out to my viewers here, you were the editor-in-chief of, what, the oxford english--american oxford english dictionary. is that about right? erin: the oxford american dictionary. scott: there you go. so, i mean, you come from--if you're not a purist yourself, you come from a line of puritans. erin: funnily enough--yes, my buckle shoes are amazing.

funnily enough, most dictionary editors are more about, "oh, we're reporting the language how people use it." and the only reason that these hundreds of thousands, million words are not in dictionaries is because it takes a really long time to write definitions. and paper is really small. so, you can think of most dictionaries are like the 7-11 of english. it has the essentials, just what you need. you run in, you get something, you go out. but it's not comprehensive, and it's not exhaustive. mike: well, how many more words would wordnik have than the oxford dictionary? erin: right now, we're about 10 times as many words. mike: ten times as many words? erin: but we don't have good examples for all of them. and so, what we're trying to find is what we call free range examples. we call them freds. mike: you're looking for something in the wild. erin: lots of journalists, you've probably read thousands of these sentences in your lifetime. if they're writing about something new, they often have to define new terminology for their readers. so, they define things in passing.

there was this great article a couple weeks ago about how the pacific northwest is in trouble if there's an earthquake. and there was a follow-up article about what you can do. and the journalist, kathryn schulz i think her name is, used the word "seiche." do you guys know what a seiche is? no, it's a complicated technical term. but a seiche is a tidal wave in a lake. and that's exactly what she said, right? scott: well, so she's right as a sort of an aside, you know. erin: exactly. and these words happen all the time. like, there was a--one of my favorite new words is the word "echoborg." so, these researchers are trying to understand how people interact with robots. and they're trying to decide, is it the machine, or is it the tone of voice in the words that they use that make it weird to interact, talking to a robot? so, they had these volunteers be echoborgs. they had a little mic in their ear, just like you have right now, and a robot--a program was telling them what to say. they would say exactly what the program told them to say. and they're called echoborgs. scott: when we want to know about a certain issue, we try to find not just an expert, but the expert.

now, in the case of drones, the kind that you fly in your backyard, we wanted to know what rules washington was working on. so, we brought in the very first white house lawyer to work on drones. laura mandaro: well, it seems like a lot of the drone restrictions in our, you know, congested urban suburban areas, anytime you would want to take a drone out, like, to see the fireworks, to go to a high school graduation, there's a no drones. so, is being a drone hobbyist really going to be really you can take your drone out, but you have to be in a national park where there are no other human beings around? lisa ellman: well, it's a great question. and right now, the regulations, the laws themselves are drafted as if a drone is going to fall out of the sky at any time. so, you're correct that you can't fly it over crowded areas or in congested airspace, or in congested areas over people. the faa doesn't care whether a drone falls out of the sky as long as it's not falling on someone's head, as long as it's not injuring anybody on the ground. and so, i think as the technology improves, as

geo-fencing technology improves, collision avoidance technology improves, which prevents collisions in the air or on the ground, as a lot of this technology improves, i think we'll see the policymaking shift over time. but certainly in the short term, you're not allowed to fly anywhere near or over people. scott: all right, so i take off from my backyard and i fly over my neighbor's backyard so that i can take a picture of my house or whatnot. is that my neighbor's airspace, or can i fly across it? lisa: well, the airspace ownership issues are something that are being talked about in towns and communities across the united states. people want to know, "i want to be able to fly in my own backyard commercially," or, "i want to prevent my neighbors." scott: just for fun, just for fun. i mean, can my neighbor say, "hey, you can't fly over my house." lisa: sure. scott: really? lisa: well, the supreme court has said up to at least 83 feet above my--above my backyard is my airspace. it's the immediate reaches of the land. it's unclear above 83 feet and below 400 feet. so, the case law is not entirely clear on the subject. it's something that's getting a lot of talk.

but i would say that the privacy concerns are real, and this is what we're hearing across the united states is that people are worried about this kind of thing. scott: back in a moment.

scott: finally this morning, a brief clip with our guest ben parr. now, ben appeared on this show for years as a panelist when he was an editor with the blog mashable. but he returned as a guest after quitting the reporting business to write a book, "captivology: the art of capturing people's attention," which he certainly did. ben parr: this is really about the fundamental science. i went through over 1,000 research studies, and i interviewed dozens of phds on the subjects of psychology, neurology, attention just to really fundamentally understand it, and created a new model for attention and how it gets

applied to the daily world. it's a completely different understanding of how it works. jp mangalindan: now, bear with me. i had to really distill it. you break it down into seven sort of key aspects, right? ben: yes. jp: can you briefly run those by? ben: so, first one's automaticity. it's how we automatically react. so, automatic sounds and sensations. scott: can i point out the last time you were on this show, you wore google glass. and this time, you have covered me in confetti. yes, there is you with google glass, and now confetti. ben parr, if you weren't such a nice guy i would--ah, continue your point. ben: did i capture your attention? scott: you captured my attention. ben: yeah. but that's the first stage. that's just immediate attention. and so, we were talking about there's these seven different triggers. scott: we're back in 2016 with all new episodes. i'm scott mcgrew. thank you for making us part of your sunday morning. [music]

[music] cc by aberdeen captioning 1-800-688-6621 www.abercap.com announcer: "press here" is sponsored in part by barracuda networks, cloud connected security and storage solutions that simplify it. city national bank, providing loans and lines of credit to help northern california businesses grow.

mian trujillo: hello and welcome to "comunidad del valle." i'm damian trujillo and today we have a special treat for you. we have the best mariachi in the world, mariachi vargas de tecalitlán on your "comunidad del valle." male announcer: nbc bay area presents, "comunidad del valle" with damian trujillo. damian: i'm celebrating 18 years of hosting this show, "comunidad del valle" on kntv. and, what a better way to celebrate then with the best mariachi in the world, mariachi vargas de tecalitlán. ¡bienvenidos! thank you all for being here. digame, whenever you play in this venue, it always sells out. why do you think people want to come to see you here? julio martinez: well, i think, sir, that people have the money to pay for mariachi vargas de tecalitlán. yeah, well, i don't know. it's the music, it's mexico, it's tradition.