Om Malik passed away on June 24, 2026, at Stanford Hospital after a long health journey with his heart. He was surrounded by family and friends.

Om was a friend and a mentor the last 20 years. He called me about the markets and investing and I called him to explain technology trends. I don’t know if I gave him great advice, but he always thanked me. I know he always gave me great advice. He kept his heart battles very private.

I shared his writing here often and just last weekend again. When I started my ‘Panic With Friends’ podcast during Covid, I had Om on as an early guest to explain what would happen with technology. All his interviews with me are here. He wrote this after that first ‘panic’ podcast…

On Panic with Friends by Howard Lindzon

A few weeks ago, my good friend Howard Lindzon (blogger, investor, and maverick) invited me to be on his Panic with Friends¹ podcast. Howard is a skillful interviewer and as always have to watch out for his trick questions. However, we are old pals, so we laughed a lot, and I josh with him a little. We ended up talking about the old times, the present times and what the future might look like after this pandemic/panic is over.

We ended up talking about technology’s loss of innocence, when it happened and why. My argument is that from the early days of the Internet to today, everything is twenty times bigger, and technology touches everything, and this pandemic is showing us that reality.

If anything there’s panic is making us understand how pervasive technology companies really are, I told Howard. Whether it is the broadband connections, our iPhones, Netflix, YouTube, DoorDash, Amazon, Zoom, Google, Microsoft, Slack — we are dealing with the pandemic with technology on one end, and medical equipment that is so basic on the other. Just as the 2008 financial meltdown turned big banks into behemoths, the pandemic is increasing the grip of technology on us, and technology companies are going to come out bigger on the other end.

My prediction is that the current lockdown and isolation is just a beta-test for what is to come. While we are worried about the pandemic, in reality, we should be preparing for a reality that comes from extreme weather and rapid climate change. Inhuman temperatures, crazy windstorms, rising sea levels — life as we have known it isn’t going to be the same. Life will have to exist with those extremes, but the question is, how is it going to happen? What is the moral responsibility of the technology companies and their leaders?

If we are smart, we should listen to the lessons we are being taught at present. Needless to say, I enjoyed this conversation, and I hope you get a few minutes to check it out.

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There are many great stories circulating quickly.

Here is a nice tribute from Brian Sugar who had the pleasure of working with him.

Matt Mullenwag, the founder of WordPress and his best friend wrote this.

RIP to a great human and kind soul who had a deep appreciation of ‘craft’.