YC

Devin Friedman muses:

But you know why I think they're really happy? Because they get to build all this stuff.

You know why I think they're really happy? They are getting a ton of money and being called geniuses by everyone. And before anyone gets started on the, 'But he said they don't buy expensive things!' line, I'd like to point out that keeping your money in a bank account is not the same as giving it all away. They want to feel like rebels.

And before anyone gets started on the, 'You're just jealous!' line, I'd like to point out that you're probably right. People like that make me feel like the starting quarterback at their high school reunion who never went to college; I sold a website when I was 11 and I am very poor now... what happened?

Worth considering is the way that these people sound like they're full of shit. I don't know that they are, but I have a strong feeling about it. All quotes are stated matter-of-fact-ly and are devoid of any self reflection- even when Friedman explicitly asks for a self reflective answer.

This seems eerily similar to the articles we read in the beginning of the semester describing the events leading up to the dot-com bust; their optimism isn't for people, it's purely selfish. Couched in egalitarian marketing speech is a laissez faire attitude toward consequence.

Penguins

I'm a terribly inefficient person (or perhaps not? I'm also indecisive) so I don't normally take notes even when I think it would make sense, so this is a bit of a change of pace for me. I've just started reading "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" and here I am making a note when I'm only 4/18 pages (PDF printout of page) deep:

No disrespect to those that might be geekier than I've realized, but I don't know how any of you are reading this without knowing exactly what he is talking about from prior knowledge. These examples he is using are not vague.  I can see how the arguments he is making aren't going to hinge on a complete or clear understanding of his anecdotes, but that has to diminish it to a certain extent, right? I don't know. I'm enjoying it, though. This was written the same year that I started programming as a kid and it's giving me the warm and fuzzies reading him talk about latest developments I had just barely started to notice.

Movements.BORG

The mission page for Movements.org:

21st century activism produces unlikely leaders. Movements.org represents a new model of peer-to-peer training wherein these leader lends their experience in digital organizing, especially short term protests and campaigns, not just to each other but also to those whose expertise lies in long term capacity building.

Can I get some cognitive dissonance up in here? 21st century activism DOES produce unlikely leaders if their model is followed; since when are activist leaders sponsored by the US State Department and a myriad of gi-fucking-gantic corporations?

Peer-to-peer? Right, I'll let the poor in the walled-off slums (literally, although also figuratively in a sense I'll address in a moment) of Rio de Janeiro know that all they have to do is charter a private jet so that they can come meet with you to discuss strategies for spreading democracy.

Moving away from them in particular, I'd like to address the 'at least they are doing SOMETHING good' sentiment about corporate social responsibility. I understand it, it seems pretty straightforward: some money invested in something important is better than none EVEN if the bottom line is still profit-drive (Andrew's point about the importance of positive branding). I am not going to restate the few things I mentioned in class, as I assume people can at least sort of remember what I was saying even if I was a little unclear and losing my shit.

Why stop at 'at least' statements? Why do we have to accept profit as the primary factor driving action by the world's big players?

Don't look now

I mentioned this in class earlier during discussion... check it out, maybe.

China Tightens Censorship of Electronic Communications

"A Beijing entrepreneur, discussing restaurant choices with his fiancée over their cellphones last week, quoted Queen Gertrude's response to Hamlet: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." The second time he said the word "protest," her phone cut off."

Oh, ok. This suits Andrejevic's arguments in iSpy like a, uh, suit.