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"Consider the source" is always relevant, and always a weak argument. Regardless of who wrote it, the main point of the article seems to be that hackers working in essentially utopian communities risk being out of touch with their users. It's basically Gibbons' thesis on Roman decline. Becoming complacent is a risk. OTOH, most people are alienated, synchronous workers. They don't have control over the means of production, don't have equity or profit-sharing, and earn a wage for their time itself rather than their products. Many HN'ers are post-capitalists, and are naturally becoming more and more distant from that world. I know I am. I visit family, or go see old non-technical friends, and fuck, so much complaining about things they wish they could control, lusting for things they wish they could afford, and hyper-attachment to their existing life and possessions. I remember the onset of that feeling, when I had stayed to long at a non-software job after college. I don't think working remotely and earning a decent salary makes me out of touch, just ahead of the curve. Same for Google and Facebook. We don't need to "get in touch with the common man"; it's like suggesting Rome should've reverted to a violent warrior culture to combat the tribes. What Rome actually did is what Google is doing. Rome didn't fall; as they had gone from Kingdom to Republic to Empire, they continued evolving, into Church. The Roman Church was able to achieve way more than the Empire, since they got an information advantage over the tribes and could conduct invasions non-violently (and way more successfully) as "missionaries" instead of military. Christianity proved to be a cultural advantage over paganism. In turn, Google is making self-driving cars. Your own traveling mini-Googleplex. They'll buy an airline in the next few years. Facebook will start building places for more people to get online, to breed new hackers. They're starting a HS internship program in Menlo Park. They'll realize, if they haven't already, that it's cheaper to make smart kids into engineers than hire them out of college. And so on. As the merchants overthrew the nobility, we're watching the hackers overthrow the capitalists. |