After leaving graduate school, he returned to California where he began writing for Pacific News Service, an alternative news syndicate based in San Francisco. He freelanced for a number of publications including "The Nation", "Mother Jones" and "Saturday Review". In 1981 he became part of the original staff of the computer industry weekly "InfoWorld". In 1984 he became an editor at "Byte Magazine" and in 1985 he left to become a reporter in the business section of the "San Francisco Examiner", where he wrote about Silicon Valley.