Every summer, shortly after the Fourth of July, I take a flight to Sun Valley, Idaho, and plant myself at a table at Konditorei, a quasi-chalet-style cafe just a stone’s throw from the Sun Valley Lodge where the nation’s top tech, media, and other business moguls gather for the annual Allen & Company confab. The idea of trying to cover this billionaires’ summer camp in any conventional sense is, of course, absurd. The small group of journalists invited to participate as guests or moderators—Gayle King, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Erin Burnett—are bound by off-the-record agreements, while those on the outside (from Bloomberg, CNBC, etc.) are left to scramble for pro forma interviews or perfunctory quotes on the rope line. Ever since the Allens forbade reporters from drinking with attendees at the bar, most journalists have opted to stay home and pine, rather tiresomely, for the old days.