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I wouldn't trust Graeber, as he is frequently wrong about easily verifiable facts in such a way that it supports his world view. There's no reason to trust a li
by cynicalkane 13y ago
I wouldn't trust Graeber, as he is frequently wrong about easily verifiable facts in such a way that it supports his world view. There's no reason to trust a liar when he tries to tell you something you don't know about. My favorite Graeberism is when he describes the founding of Apple:
> Apple Computers is a famous example: it was founded by (mostly Republican) computer engineers who broke from IBM in Silicon Valley in the 1980s, forming little democratic circles of twenty to forty people with their laptops in each other's garages
but there are plenty others, an exhaustive list of which would be inappropriately long for a HN reply. This isn't one of those things where people don't understand computers, this is one of those things where someone just completely makes shit up. He's also a somewhat unhinged and deeply horrible person. Discussed here by Brad Delong who is about as far left as real economists come: http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/04/david-graeber-april-fools-day-post.html http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/04/david-graeber-april-fo...
- febeling 13y agoUh, thanks for pointing to this. I found an article detailing this a bit more[1]. This is a inaccuracy that is quite telling about the quality of research this author is going to offer. 1 http://www.businessweek.com/finance/occupy-wall-street/archives/2011/11/david_graebers_odd_history_of_silicon_valley.html http://www.businessweek.com/finance/occupy-wall-street/archi...
- cynicalkane 13y agoThat's astonishing. Caught in a lie, he first denies it, then backpedals and immediately blames someone else who is clearly not at fault. My already-low opinion of him is now even lower.
- dredmorbius 13y agoThanks as well. I've been intrigued by Graeber, though I've also suspected him of an ideological bias. Not that economic orthodoxy doesn't suffer from a similar bias. DeLong's list of howlers is going to get some strong looking at. Graeber's response to the criticism doesn't instill much confidence in him. Though DeLong setting up a taunt-o-matic is a tad interesting....
- army 13y agoThanks for reminding me of that quote - it's rare you find some much hilarity packed into a single sentence.
- jseliger 13y agoGreat comment! Thanks. I updated the post.
- dredmorbius 13y ago2nd follow-up (can't edit my first). Wow, the DeLong piece is really epic. Graeber's caught in multiple errors (or faleshoods, or lies), gets epicly trolled by DeLong (a bit harsh, but ... on balance, called for), retaliates with taunting, name calling, and legal threats, anything but an "um, sorry, yeah, you were right", and ... As I said before: Graeber's premise is interesting, but he's definitely tainted goods from here on out, and I'll have to verify any of his claims/statements before using them elsewhere. Pity.
- dredmorbius 13y agoGraeber has responded to criticisms as well, though I find his answers somewhat lacking: http://crookedtimber.org/2012/04/02/seminar-on-debt-the-first-5000-years-reply/ http://crookedtimber.org/2012/04/02/seminar-on-debt-the-firs...