[neilk]

I think Maciej is brilliant and so is this piece, but I do wish he didn't so often play the "you're all dysfunctional nerds" card.

Also, there's an unstated assumption that in order to write software that is useful socially, one has to be very social. This sounds like the arguments people used to have in the mid-90s about whether a program could ever replace a librarian. Well, it didn't -- but it didn't need to.

I think it's clear that what we call social networks don't model our friendships well. That doesn't mean they aren't useful in some other way. Perhaps the great shift will come when we stop trying to make social networks be our Advanced Friendship Substitute, and instead make them do something more useful.

[TeMPOraL]

> Also, there's an unstated assumption that in order to write software that is useful socially, one has to be very social. This sounds like the arguments people used to have in the mid-90s about whether a program could ever replace a librarian. Well, it didn't -- but it didn't need to.

Another example: programmers of Deep Blue didn't have to be good at playing chess. They just had to understand the rules and the concept of search trees.