
The Facebook: Another Product of a Broken System - thinkcomp
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-greenspan/the-facebook-another-prod_b_100662.html
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Alex3917
Constructive criticism: This essay rambles a little bit. There are a bunch of
ideas that are hinted at but never really developed. This doesn't especially
bother me and it's actually kind of interesting, but I'm also not sure it's
the best way to sell the book if that is part of the goal.

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bkbleikamp
I have known who Aaron is since like...1999 (I was 13)? I've been checking
ThinkComputer once or twice a year since then but there never seemed to be
updates on what was going on - it's good to see he is still involved in the
tech industry at some level.

Anyway, it was interesting read his perspective on Harvard / higher education
(and see a little more commentary on the Facebook issue).

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andreyf
More constructive criticism: write longer articles. Like Steve Yegge and PG,
your writing is very engaging. I was left with a feeling of "oh, that's it? I
wanted more". Intentional or not, it was a good way to sell the book.

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thinkcomp
Thanks! I'll show your comment to my editor there... Typically, they like
articles to be short because the conventional wisdom is that people reading
blogs have a 700-word attention span. (I tend to disagree with this wisdom,
and even if it's true, I have little to say to people who can only comprehend
700 words at a time.) I was already pushing it at 1,100 words, and I had
absolutely had to cut it down from 1,500.

Fortunately, if you do want something longer, there's always that 156,083-word
essay you mentioned...

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natrius
"My proposed special concentration in the intersection between "technology and
its impact on society" could not be classified purely as economics or computer
science. Each Dean reacted to my proposal with the same look: how could one
even think such unclassifiable thoughts!"

Looks like you went to the wrong school.[1] But on a serious note, did they
actually not make a serious attempt to accommodate you? It's not exactly a
novel area of study.

[1] <http://sts.stanford.edu/about.html>

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andreyf
Also on the topics of "technology and its impact on society", Mark Pesce can
be very insightful. His video entitled "Piracy is good" made the rounds here
awhile back, and the rest of his work ranges from insightful dangerously-
close-to-the-brink-of-sanity, but all in a very fun way.

<http://www.markpesce.com/>

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aston
I think Facebook is Aaron Greenspan's favorite subject.

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thinkcomp
The Huffington Post asked me to write about Facebook. I asked them to write
about something else. They want one more related article and then I promise
something more interesting!

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aston
Haha. Good to know I wasn't talking about you behind your back. It's cool,
man.

