

Is HN Scared of Discussing Andrew Keen's 'The Internet Is Not the Answer'? - marco1

Is his book controversial? Yes.<p>Does he have all the right answers? Probably not.<p>But are his questions worth being asked and discussed? Absolutely.<p>While receiving wide press coverage on The Washington Post, The Guardian, etc., neither the book itself nor any reviews have received more than two points on HN.
======
dragonwriter
From the reviews, I've seen the thesis doesn't appear to be novel, the
arguments for it don't appear to be novel, and there doesn't appear to be any
particular new insight or point-of-view presented not widely discussed on HN.

I might be missing something that isn't obvious, but it just doesn't seem
particularly _interesting_ to discuss; it does seem to be the kind of thing
that might be interesting to people that _haven 't_ thought at all about the
role of the internet and related technology in culture and the economy, but
that group of people doesn't seem to have a lot of overlap with the HN
readership.

Not finding something interesting based on the presented information about it
isn't the same as being scared of it.

------
minimaxir
...no?

Getting points depends on a lot of factors, most notably timing. It should not
be taken personally.

~~~
MichaelCrawford
I move heaven and earth to get points, but no it is not to be.

But then some spontaneous offhand remark spawns a huge long thread and lots of
votes.

~~~
minimaxir
There are more important things in life than internet points.

------
shedletsky
Is this book worth reading?

~~~
mindcrime
I saw it at B&N, read the back-jacket notes and thought it sounded interesting
enough _to_ read. I bought it, but haven't had time to actually read it yet.

FWIW, the author (Andrew Keen[1]) made a bit of a stir with one of his earlier
books _The Cult of the Amateur_. All in all, he seems to hold a generally
negative view of the Internet and "Internet Culture" and a lot of the things
that have been enabled by the Internet and which have become very popular.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Keen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Keen)

~~~
marco1
Thanks! Notably, also from Wikipedia:

"Keen returned to Silicon Valley in 1995 and founded Audiocafe.com, which
received funding from Intel and SAP. The firm folded in April 2000 and after
the demise of Audiocafe.com, Keen worked at various technology companies
including Pulse 3D, SLO Media, Santa Cruz Networks, Jazziz Digital and Pure
Depth, where he was director of global strategic sales. In 2005, Keen founded
AfterTV, intended to bring clarity, understanding and foresight to the post-
TV-centric media and consumer landscape."

"Tim O'Reilly has said 'I find, Andrew Keen's, his whole pitch, I think he was
just pure and simple looking for an angle, to create some controversy to sell
a book, I don't think there's any substance whatever to his rants.'"

------
venomsnake
The fact that I had to use the internet to find the answer to "WTF is internet
is not the answer" proves that indeed internet is the answer...

------
mindcrime
I don't think anybody is "scared" to talk about it. TBH, this is the first
discussion of that book that I've seen pop up. I'd be happy to discuss it, if
I'd read it. Unfortunately, however, I only just bought a copy and haven't had
time to read it yet. _shrug_

~~~
marco1
HN users, most being technical, are rather beneficiaries than victims of the
internet as discussed. So it's not particularly far-fetched to think that we
all, collectively, have avoided this topic and rejected the criticism.

~~~
aaronbrethorst
How about writing a book review, posting it to your blog, and submitting a
link to that instead of name-calling?

This is the first time I've heard of this book.

~~~
marco1
I don't see any name-calling, just honest questions and criticism.

There are already quite a few reviews in the press where the authors probably
did a better job than I could do:

[http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/01/internet-is-
not...](http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/01/internet-is-not-the-
answer-review-andrew-keen)

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-the-
inter...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-the-internet-is-
not-the-answer-by-andrew-
keen/2015/01/02/8627999a-7973-11e4-9a27-6fdbc612bff8_story.html)

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/1134786...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/11347864/The-
Internet-Is-Not-the-Answer-by-Andrew-Keen-review.html)

[http://fortune.com/2014/12/28/an-internet-to-love-and-
hate/](http://fortune.com/2014/12/28/an-internet-to-love-and-hate/)

[http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-andrew-
keen...](http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-andrew-
keen-20150201-story.html)

[http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/blaming-the-internet-is-
no...](http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/blaming-the-internet-is-not-the-
answer)

[http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-
entertainment/books/review...](http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-
entertainment/books/reviews/the-internet-is-not-the-answer-by-andrew-keen-
book-review-a-skilful-reading-of-the-runes-10031880.html)

------
mindcrime
Anyway, what do you what to discuss about it? Do you agree with his points?
Disagree? Would you like to expand on something the author said? Etc? I mean,
just saying "let's discuss X" isn't saying much. Start us off by throwing
something out there!

------
MichaelCrawford
I know lots of people who dont use comouters nor the internet. They dont want
to.

Its not because they lack money or education. One is a deputy sheriff; he uses
a computer at work but its not on the internet. He doesnt have a computer at
home.

