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I think you underestimate the cultural impact that small groups can have. I am not sure about indieweb in particular, but there are many niche groups that had m

by iNic 2y ago

I think you underestimate the cultural impact that small groups can have. I am not sure about indieweb in particular, but there are many niche groups that had much longer-term impact than more mainstream movements. In music this is often expressed as your artists favorite artist. For me Captain Beefheart (influencing Beck and Tom Waits), Death Grips (influenced Björk and David Bowie) come to mind, but there are probably more niche groups that I don't know. In economics the Chicago school had a outsized impact considering they how fringe they seemed in the world of academia. Nowadays I would say that George Mason is the new Chicago school, and for similar reasons. I would love to get more examples of this phenomenon if anyone else has any.

3np 2y ago
Aphex Twin?
diggan 2y ago
> underestimate the cultural impact that small groups can have [...] I would love to get more examples of this phenomenon I wasn't alive at the time, so I don't know how small/fringe the lisp community was at the time, but your comment made me think of how lisp "invented" things like if-then-else, recursion, garbage collection, first-class functions and more, which we more or less take for granted in every programming language today (at least some of those features), although lisp and lisp-likes remain fringe today. The same pattern seems to be repeating even in modern times where things like React/Redux/hot code reloading were heavily inspired by what the ClojureScript (a lisp-like compile-to-JS language) community was experimenting with at the time, if I remember correctly.
- netcan 2y ago
  There is no argument about small groups' potential impact. The question is "what kind of group is this." Where is the analogy of Lisp to indieweb?
  - diggan 2y ago
    > The question is "what kind of group is this." Sorry for the confusion, but I was just trying to add additional examples since parent said "love to get more examples of this phenomenon", I wasn't trying to make any argument for one side or the other.
netcan 2y ago
Sure. I don't disagree with that. I think the Beat Generation (and mid-century Mississippi blues) from my earlier comment are also examples. Niche in their time. Automobile enthusiasts were a niche group. Early web forum users, IRC, ICQ... Predecessors of modern social media culture. For an even more "on the nose" example would be the Homebrew Computer Club, Altair programmers and whatnot. I think we're all familiar with "disruption theory" by this point on HN. The point is... is this a vanguard or a rear guard? Both have value. But... expecting the rear guard to "take off" is misguided.
- jjulius 2y ago
  >But... expecting the rear guard to "take off" is misguided. Uhh... not "taking off" is exactly the point.

by iNic 2y ago

3np 2y ago

Aphex Twin?

diggan 2y ago

> underestimate the cultural impact that small groups can have [...] I would love to get more examples of this phenomenon I wasn't alive at the time, so I don't know how small/fringe the lisp community was at the time, but your comment made me think of how lisp "invented" things like if-then-else, recursion, garbage collection, first-class functions and more, which we more or less take for granted in every programming language today (at least some of those features), although lisp and lisp-likes remain fringe today. The same pattern seems to be repeating even in modern times where things like React/Redux/hot code reloading were heavily inspired by what the ClojureScript (a lisp-like compile-to-JS language) community was experimenting with at the time, if I remember correctly.

netcan 2y ago
There is no argument about small groups' potential impact. The question is "what kind of group is this." Where is the analogy of Lisp to indieweb?
- diggan 2y ago
  > The question is "what kind of group is this." Sorry for the confusion, but I was just trying to add additional examples since parent said "love to get more examples of this phenomenon", I wasn't trying to make any argument for one side or the other.

netcan 2y ago

Sure. I don't disagree with that. I think the Beat Generation (and mid-century Mississippi blues) from my earlier comment are also examples. Niche in their time. Automobile enthusiasts were a niche group. Early web forum users, IRC, ICQ... Predecessors of modern social media culture. For an even more "on the nose" example would be the Homebrew Computer Club, Altair programmers and whatnot. I think we're all familiar with "disruption theory" by this point on HN. The point is... is this a vanguard or a rear guard? Both have value. But... expecting the rear guard to "take off" is misguided.

jjulius 2y ago
>But... expecting the rear guard to "take off" is misguided. Uhh... not "taking off" is exactly the point.