Well, it's not the well-rounded 40-something technologists who are going
out and making ridiculous claims about P2P. It's the late 20-something,
early 30-something folks who write for glossy magazines that I'm reacting
to so strongly.
I don't think it's an ad hominem attack to say that someone is missing
a fundamental premise. It would be one to say that they were incapable
of learning said premise. It's probably a lot harsher than it needs to
be, and I shouldn't have let my frustration show as much. I did take
a slam or two at things, but the whole piece is not one big attack.
I also was leading a productive life while "adventuring"-- once out of
highschool, I had exactly 3 semesters of college before taking a leave
of absence, from which I've never returned. I'm not speaking from an
ivory tower. I don't think my experience was "superior", I just think
it was different from that of a lot of people presenting themselves as
having superior insight. I think they just have "different" insight, and
should be looking for additional input rather than saying they have
the definitive answer. I've provided a couple of puzzle pieces, and
said there's a puzzle. I think that's a better approach than saying
"I have the answer!".
I'll definitely grant that I need to rewrite this into a positive,
active piece rather than the negative, reactive piece I originally wrote.
I think the central ideas stand well, but your reaction shows me that
it's poorly written for anyone who isn't already convinced. You already
"get it", so you only pick up on the frustration, not the content.
BTW, I'm not sure that there is such a thing as "high-integrity hype".
Hype originally was short for hyperbole, exaggeration. I don't think
it's possible to exaggerate with integrity. But I can see high-integrity
communication with enthusiasm outside of the realm of hype.
Cheers,
_Strata
Dave Winer wrote:
>
> I have a problem with your analysis.
>
> The well-rounded 40-something technologist did *both* PC/Mac software and
> Internet stuff in the 70s and 80s and of course in the 90s.
>
> A common fallacy is to think that you get something that others don't
> because in some way your experience was superior.
>
> We were all leading lives, many of them productive, while you were
> adventuring in the True Nature of computers and the Internet.
>
> It's basically an Ad Hominem attack. How does that get us any closer to
> high-integrity-hype?
>
> (Something which I believe can be done if smart honest people care to create
> a foundation with integrity. I've invited many people to do exactly that on
> TheTwoWayWeb.Com, but so far have only had a couple of takers.)
>
> Dave
-- ======================================================================== Strata Rose Chalup [KF6NBZ] strata "@" virtual.net VirtualNet Consulting http://www.virtual.net/ ** Project Management & Architecture for ISP/ASP Systems Integration ** =========================================================================
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 27 2001 - 23:17:52 PDT