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I just looked through a copy. There's not much I'd change if I were writing those essays today. Obviously e.g. "A Plan for Spam" is obsolete in the sense that

by pg 15y ago

I just looked through a copy. There's not much I'd change if I were writing those essays today. Obviously e.g. "A Plan for Spam" is obsolete in the sense that the state of the art has moved way past such techniques. Ditto for "The other Road Ahead." But the rest I'd write much the same today.

DanielRibeiro 15y ago
What would you change on The other Road Ahead? A more focus on mobile, more on the line of Fred Wilson's Mobile First Web Second[1]? [1] http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/09/mobile-first-web-second.html http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/09/mobile-first-web-second.html
- pg 15y ago
  The model I had of server-based software then was not merely pre-tablet but pre-Ajax. I was talking about a world where all the computation happened on the server.
  - dkersten 15y ago
    I would say that now (post-ajax and tablets), we're beginning to get quite close to your prediction.
    - matthodan 15y ago
      Are we not coming full circle? Can't you make the argument that we're getting closer to a world in which all the server does is store and retrieve information, while the browser does the heavy lifting? Thank you JavaScript and web APIs.
      - william42 15y ago
        Actually, I'd say we've gotten to the point where it usually doesn't matter who does the «heavy lifting», because CPU time is so comparatively cheap.
        seanp2k 15y ago
        I'd argue that it still matters tremendously due to scalability concerns. Check out stuff like Sproutcore which moves things that were previously done in PHP to Javascript. That will make a huge difference if you have thousands of users for your application...PHP might require a cluster with a few application server nodes if the data is pretty cachable, while SproutCore might only require a single server if it's just doing JSON API calls or something.
        gbog 15y ago
        I have the feeling that hard work on browser is still a bad idea.
        dkersten 15y ago
        Would you say the same is true for, eg, the «heavy lifting» done by a Google search? I certainly wouldn't, so I don't think your statement is true in the general case, though it is certainly true for a large class of software.
jseliger 15y ago
Here's a request that's unlikely to be fulfilled but one I'll make anyway: assemble an essay collection aimed at high school / college students. In my ideal world, it would contain in about this order: 1) What You'll Wish You'd Known 2) What You Can't Say 3) Disconnecting Distraction 4) The Age of the Essay 5) Why Nerds are Unpopular 6) Writing, Briefly 7) Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas 8) Good and Bad Procrastination 9) How to Do What You Love 10) See Randomness 11) The Power of the Marginal 12) How Art Can Be Good 13) Taste for Makers 14) Two Kinds of Judgement 15) Stuff There's obviously some overlap with this list and Hackers & Painters. But I think this grouping would be much more useful for the general population; most freshmen aren't as keen on programming language discussions. I often use the first three essays listed above in the freshman comp classes I teach, and they often yield interesting reactions from students. Sometimes we venture into "The Age of the Essay" and "Stuff." Students who are especially interested in why high school is structured the way it is often get pointers to "Why Nerds Are Unpopular." If you know anyone at O'Reilly, you can tell them they'd get about 50 copies a semester ordered. That's probably pretty small time, but I suppose something is better than nothing.
- pg 15y ago
  I've thought of doing things like this. Maybe one day if I have more time. There are all kinds of things I'd like to do but don't have time to now.
  - adrianscott 15y ago
    You're being very diplomatic. Probably a function of priority more than time, hehe ;)
    - gildedsuit 15y ago
      Yeah I imagine Y Combinator is a lot more important.
  - jseliger 15y ago
    Nuts. I could imagine the process being relatively easy if you have a pre-existing relationship with a publisher like O'Reilly: send me the contract, here are the essay URLs (which have already been proofread), do the typesetting, and send the book out into the world. In actuality I suppose it's not that simple.
rmc 15y ago
Is there any of your recent essays that you would include now? Were there any of your old essays, that in hindsight now, that you would include?
pg 15y ago
Actually now that I think about it, there is one thing I'd change. In "Mind the Gap" I implied the reason people were upset by economic inequality was the model of wealth they learned as children. Now I suspect it goes deeper than that: I think humans may have a genetic predisposition to equality. What made me realize this was going to Africa and seeing lots of animals in the wild. All or nearly all the big mammals lived in groups and cooperated to survive. It was clear that our ancestors would in their day have been one of these groups, also cooperating to survive (as hunter-gatherers still do in a few places), and that their cooperative inclinations were probably genetically preprogrammed. If so then people's problem with inequality is not a learned behavior. It simply feels wrong to humans. That doesn't mean they're right. The Monte Carlo fallacy feels right to humans, but it isn't. But it does probably mean that people are happier, all other things being equal, when there is less inequality. Of course you have to balance this against (a) other, equally deeply held traditions, like not stealing, and (b) the slower technological/economic growth you get when you ban being rich.
- rbarooah 15y ago
  Could you explain what it means for people to be 'right' or not 'right' about inequality? I'm referring to where you say 'That doesn't mean they're right' If we're genetically constructed to feel unhappy about something, and we build a society that makes that thing true, then it seems as though we are manufacturing suffering, and we should seek to reduce it. From what perspective can it be 'right' to knowingly maintain a society where the majority of people are guaranteed to suffer? Also - isn't there a giant difference between 'banning being rich', and making it possible for a reasonable number of people to share in prosperity. There's plenty of evidence suggesting that the US was more prosperous when there was less inequality, and yet there were always some very rich people.
  - pg 15y ago
    I mean this inclination doesn't imply anything about what economic policy should be, except in the narrowest sense that gratifying it will (all other things being equal, which they are decidedly not) make people feel better.

by pg 15y ago

DanielRibeiro 15y ago

What would you change on The other Road Ahead? A more focus on mobile, more on the line of Fred Wilson's Mobile First Web Second[1]? [1] http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/09/mobile-first-web-second.html http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/09/mobile-first-web-second.html

pg 15y ago
The model I had of server-based software then was not merely pre-tablet but pre-Ajax. I was talking about a world where all the computation happened on the server.
- dkersten 15y ago
  I would say that now (post-ajax and tablets), we're beginning to get quite close to your prediction.
  - matthodan 15y ago
    Are we not coming full circle? Can't you make the argument that we're getting closer to a world in which all the server does is store and retrieve information, while the browser does the heavy lifting? Thank you JavaScript and web APIs.
    - william42 15y ago
      Actually, I'd say we've gotten to the point where it usually doesn't matter who does the «heavy lifting», because CPU time is so comparatively cheap.
      - seanp2k 15y ago
        I'd argue that it still matters tremendously due to scalability concerns. Check out stuff like Sproutcore which moves things that were previously done in PHP to Javascript. That will make a huge difference if you have thousands of users for your application...PHP might require a cluster with a few application server nodes if the data is pretty cachable, while SproutCore might only require a single server if it's just doing JSON API calls or something.
      - gbog 15y ago
        I have the feeling that hard work on browser is still a bad idea.
      - dkersten 15y ago
        Would you say the same is true for, eg, the «heavy lifting» done by a Google search? I certainly wouldn't, so I don't think your statement is true in the general case, though it is certainly true for a large class of software.

jseliger 15y ago

Here's a request that's unlikely to be fulfilled but one I'll make anyway: assemble an essay collection aimed at high school / college students. In my ideal world, it would contain in about this order: 1) What You'll Wish You'd Known 2) What You Can't Say 3) Disconnecting Distraction 4) The Age of the Essay 5) Why Nerds are Unpopular 6) Writing, Briefly 7) Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas 8) Good and Bad Procrastination 9) How to Do What You Love 10) See Randomness 11) The Power of the Marginal 12) How Art Can Be Good 13) Taste for Makers 14) Two Kinds of Judgement 15) Stuff There's obviously some overlap with this list and Hackers & Painters. But I think this grouping would be much more useful for the general population; most freshmen aren't as keen on programming language discussions. I often use the first three essays listed above in the freshman comp classes I teach, and they often yield interesting reactions from students. Sometimes we venture into "The Age of the Essay" and "Stuff." Students who are especially interested in why high school is structured the way it is often get pointers to "Why Nerds Are Unpopular." If you know anyone at O'Reilly, you can tell them they'd get about 50 copies a semester ordered. That's probably pretty small time, but I suppose something is better than nothing.

pg 15y ago
I've thought of doing things like this. Maybe one day if I have more time. There are all kinds of things I'd like to do but don't have time to now.
- adrianscott 15y ago
  You're being very diplomatic. Probably a function of priority more than time, hehe ;)
  - gildedsuit 15y ago
    Yeah I imagine Y Combinator is a lot more important.
- jseliger 15y ago
  Nuts. I could imagine the process being relatively easy if you have a pre-existing relationship with a publisher like O'Reilly: send me the contract, here are the essay URLs (which have already been proofread), do the typesetting, and send the book out into the world. In actuality I suppose it's not that simple.

rmc 15y ago

Is there any of your recent essays that you would include now? Were there any of your old essays, that in hindsight now, that you would include?

pg 15y ago

Actually now that I think about it, there is one thing I'd change. In "Mind the Gap" I implied the reason people were upset by economic inequality was the model of wealth they learned as children. Now I suspect it goes deeper than that: I think humans may have a genetic predisposition to equality. What made me realize this was going to Africa and seeing lots of animals in the wild. All or nearly all the big mammals lived in groups and cooperated to survive. It was clear that our ancestors would in their day have been one of these groups, also cooperating to survive (as hunter-gatherers still do in a few places), and that their cooperative inclinations were probably genetically preprogrammed. If so then people's problem with inequality is not a learned behavior. It simply feels wrong to humans. That doesn't mean they're right. The Monte Carlo fallacy feels right to humans, but it isn't. But it does probably mean that people are happier, all other things being equal, when there is less inequality. Of course you have to balance this against (a) other, equally deeply held traditions, like not stealing, and (b) the slower technological/economic growth you get when you ban being rich.

rbarooah 15y ago
Could you explain what it means for people to be 'right' or not 'right' about inequality? I'm referring to where you say 'That doesn't mean they're right' If we're genetically constructed to feel unhappy about something, and we build a society that makes that thing true, then it seems as though we are manufacturing suffering, and we should seek to reduce it. From what perspective can it be 'right' to knowingly maintain a society where the majority of people are guaranteed to suffer? Also - isn't there a giant difference between 'banning being rich', and making it possible for a reasonable number of people to share in prosperity. There's plenty of evidence suggesting that the US was more prosperous when there was less inequality, and yet there were always some very rich people.
- pg 15y ago
  I mean this inclination doesn't imply anything about what economic policy should be, except in the narrowest sense that gratifying it will (all other things being equal, which they are decidedly not) make people feel better.