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Steve Jobs alone is more of a counter culture figure, with the ashram in India, and the drug use, and the whole garage story. Zuckerberg was a kid from freakin
by yoasif_ 15y ago
Steve Jobs alone is more of a counter culture figure, with the ashram in India, and the drug use, and the whole garage story.
Zuckerberg was a kid from freakin' Harvard and Phillips Exeter. I think the Harvard thing alone disqualifies him from being a counter cultural figure, especially since he has always seemed squeaky clean and fairly intelligent.
As far as the nerds "winning" -- I thought that was the way of the world. Napoleon wasn't some giant, neither was Bill Gates. The idea that the jock's best years are in high school is a pretty well-known trope at this point, often used to comedic effect in movies like Revenge of the Nerds -- or TV shows like Married with Children.
Well-off kids doing well for themselves is hardly unusual or counter cultural -- it's more like that's what we would expect with the advantages afforded to them.
- tyrmored 15y agoYour college does not dictate your eventual status as a "square" or counterculture icon. Timothy Leary, whom Nixon described as the most dangerous man in America due to his immense countercultural influence, was a Harvard lecturer. Ted Kaczynski (better known as the Unabomber) was accepted there at age 16 for his undergraduate degree, later became an assistant professor at Berkeley, and has inspired a whole generation of ecoterrorists and neo-luddites. And what about all the free software/open source advocates that came out of buttoned-down tech schools like MIT, including Richard Stallman?
- yoasif_ 15y agoYep. But all those guys were clearly counter culture figures: drugs, terrorism, open source (that last one is so different and hard to categorize that I just called it what we know it as). Zuckerberg? Where's his support of Occupy Wall Street, or the Tea Party, or even marijuana legalization? Facebook doesn't even allow pictures of breastfeeding mothers! http://abcnews.go.com/Health/breastfeeding-advocates-hold-facebook-protest/story?id=15530012#.T4gP7qVetfw http://abcnews.go.com/Health/breastfeeding-advocates-hold-fa... I know that you were providing examples where the college someone went to doesn't preclude them from being counter cultural. Zuckerberg, though, while not "square" exactly, is basically what our culture basically expects of people that go to those schools. Leary and Kaczynski, not so much, and that may actually be a part of the reason that that they grew to have outsize influence as counter cultural icons!
- herval 15y agoI'm pretty aware you disagree about both the "counter-culture" and "coolness". It just doesn't change facts that MOST PEOPLE AGREE (including whoever wrote the article and hollywood and movie-goers in general), facebook WAS cool and zuckerberg WAS counter-culture. And now facebook is where you meet you mom and zuckerberg is one more sold-out billionaire.
- herval 15y agoSpeaking of which, Steve Jobs was ALSO known as counter-culture (but not nerd) and now is widely perceived as a dictator due to its insistence on closed end-to-end architectures. Yesterday's David is today's Goliath.