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‘The Internet Is Broken’: Ev Williams Is Trying to Salvage It

mobile.nytimes.com

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Re: ‘The Internet Is Broken’: Ev Williams Is Trying to Salvage It

#11

Post by _pmf_ »

stupidhn wrote: post #2

Great phtograph of a beautiful kitchen, complete with a chef providing catered lunches, captioned with a description of how the company had to lay off staff because the company executives can't figure out how to make money. Perhaps that should come before the chef? Why is it such a badge of pride to provide perks on other people's dime? Silicon Valley in a nutshell.

> Why is it such a badge of pride to provide perks on other people's dime? Silicon Valley in a nutshell

If you really want to make the bile rise, read the Wired piece on the new Apple campus (although to be fair, I believe everyone at Apple involved with the project is being somewhat embarrassed at having to erect Jobs' grotesque intellectual mausoleum).

Re: ‘The Internet Is Broken’: Ev Williams Is Trying to Salvage It

#12

Post by dilemma »

jtraffic wrote: post #8

I'm getting tired of people saying "the ____ is broken" for everything, and always at the beginning of a pitch for a new vision of the world. I suppose having an alternative is better than an empty critique, but the business interest usually makes the new vision ring hollow to me.

"* is broken" is the ultimate expression of a highly potent mixture of ignorance and narcissism. It assumes that everyone but you is an idiot, that the answer is simple, and that you have it.

Re: ‘The Internet Is Broken’: Ev Williams Is Trying to Salvage It

#14

Post by tvanantwerp »

Veen wrote: post #6
chongli wrote: post #4

Unbearable read. Overflowing with intellectual elitism. Completely out of touch with reality. If this is PR [0], Evan Williams should demand a refund. I don't know, maybe this crap appeals to yuppies living in the coastal big cities? Tools like Twitter and Facebook have done more to connect more people of all income and education levels than anything else. Medium is not going to reach these people, who don't read the…

If we had this attitude --- nothing of greatness or substance or length will be tolerated until everyone can have unfettered access to it --- we'd still be living in caves. The future is always unevenly distributed. The solution is not to demand everything stop until everyone is equal, but to make sure no one is left behind in the long run. Rejecting intellectual elitism is a huge mistake.

I've got no problem with intellectual elites. Too bad that most Medium writers aren't such people, despite whatever they may believe about themselves.

Re: ‘The Internet Is Broken’: Ev Williams Is Trying to Salvage It

#15

Post by krapp »

I'm sick of people deciding that the problem with the internet is other people.

The internet isn't "broken." The internet is the only mass communication and media paradigm which doesn't have to present a facade for the sake of commercial interests, but an honest, unfiltered glimpse at the zeitgeist. It's a mirror, an honest mirror. If we don't like what we see, it's because we had a naive understanding of what we are.

Re: ‘The Internet Is Broken’: Ev Williams Is Trying to Salvage It

#17

Post by weberc2 »

krapp wrote: post #15

I'm sick of people deciding that the problem with the internet is other people. The internet isn't "broken." The internet is the only mass communication and media paradigm which doesn't have to present a facade for the sake of commercial interests, but an honest, unfiltered glimpse at the zeitgeist. It's a mirror, an honest mirror. If we don't like what we see, it's because we had a naive understanding of what we are…

I agree. In particular, the NYT and other large media organizations seem to talk as though the internet became abruptly disharmonious during the election. It wouldn't be an NYT article of it didn't have "Trump supporters are evil" undertones. Our country isn't going to get better if we are constantly demonizing those with whom we disagree.

Re: ‘The Internet Is Broken’: Ev Williams Is Trying to Salvage It

#18

Post by weberc2 »

dilemma wrote: post #12
jtraffic wrote: post #8

I'm getting tired of people saying "the ____ is broken" for everything, and always at the beginning of a pitch for a new vision of the world. I suppose having an alternative is better than an empty critique, but the business interest usually makes the new vision ring hollow to me.

"* is broken" is the ultimate expression of a highly potent mixture of ignorance and narcissism. It assumes that everyone but you is an idiot, that the answer is simple, and that you have it.

"Toxic" seems to be its moral equivalent, and it was also featured in this article. This word gets thrown out when someone wants to call some other group "evil", but the actual rationale invites too many parallels to be drawn to the accuser's own tribe.

Re: ‘The Internet Is Broken’: Ev Williams Is Trying to Salvage It

#19

Post by elliotec »

weberc2 wrote: post #17
krapp wrote: post #15

I'm sick of people deciding that the problem with the internet is other people. The internet isn't "broken." The internet is the only mass communication and media paradigm which doesn't have to present a facade for the sake of commercial interests, but an honest, unfiltered glimpse at the zeitgeist. It's a mirror, an honest mirror. If we don't like what we see, it's because we had a naive understanding of what we are…

I agree. In particular, the NYT and other large media organizations seem to talk as though the internet became abruptly disharmonious during the election. It wouldn't be an NYT article of it didn't have "Trump supporters are evil" undertones. Our country isn't going to get better if we are constantly demonizing those with whom we disagree.

Our country isn't going to get better whether or not we continue to demonize these people, and I for one agree with the NYT that yes, they are evil.
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