For once, I will answer this question: yes, soon. This winter, I hope.

Btw, will Arc ever be open-sourced?

I'd love to just sudo apt-get install arc in this lifetime.

What a crock. Facebook's design was set long before Thiel invested in it.

There's a lot of mistaken stuff on the web, but this article is interesting because it's an example of the sort of writing people could only get away with before the web: the house journalist who makes a show of having done some research, but doesn't really understand the stuff he's writing about.

"Why do I need a computer to connect with people around me?"

This could have been written about the phone in 1930 (I'm sure one could dig up all kinds of juicy things about the politics of the people "behind" AT&T) or printing in 1500.

"Far from connecting us, Facebook actually isolates us at our workstations."

Workstations? Who uses a workstation? Does this guy not realize that phones are connected to the Internet?

"On Facebook, you can be free to be who you want to be, as long as you don't mind being bombarded by adverts for the world's biggest brands."

What free web site is this not true of? The site on which this article appeared is running ads.

This article shows why bloggers are gaining readers and print journalists are losing them. A high school kid surveying the world from his bedroom could do better.

As a data point, in the source code of Arc and its libraries + the web server + News.YC + all of YC's internal applications, there are 738 calls to def (= CL defun) and 187 calls to mac (= CL defmacro). This isn't a complete list, because there are other defining operators, but it gives you an idea how large a role macros play in a typical Lisp application.

If you measured by uses of each type of operator, the role of macros would be even larger. You often write a function that you only call once, but you wouldn't do that with a macro.

Here's the last piece of code I wrote. I wrote it because I was curious to see what colors users had chosen for the top bar.

  (defopa topcolors req
    (minipage "Topcolors"
      (tab
        (each user (sort (compare > [karma _])
                         (keep [aand (uvar _ topcolor)
                                     (isnt it (hexrep orange))] 
                               (keys profs*)))
          (tr (td (link user (user-url user)))
              (tdcolor (hex>color (uvar user topcolor)) (hspace 30)))))))

There are 10 macros used here: defopa, minipage, tab, each, karma, aand, uvar, tr, td, tdcolor.

Actually it's a hack that karma is a macro. I wanted it to be settable and was too lazy to define a setter, so I just defined it as a macro. It should be a function, and I should be able to say just (compare > karma).

Just install Ubuntu. Couldn't be easier.

He calls Peter Thiel a neoconservative. But Thiel is actively against neoconservatism: he supports Ron Paul.* Apparently, in Guardian-speak, "neoconservative" doesn't mean a follower of Leo Strauss, or a supporter of aggressive war in the Middle East, it just means "American stuff I don't like".

I am not a fan of Facebook or Ron Paul or any form of conservatism. But this article is so infuriatingly wrong I wonder if we're all being trolled.

* http://people.ronpaul2008.com/endorsements/2007/12/22/peter-...

Ruby descended from lisp, according to matz. So in order to "see what you're missing" by using ruby, take a look at what he removed or changed from lisp. In particular he removed macros and created syntax. As others have commented, macros are a very powerful language feature.

http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/...

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that you will be transitioning into a world of "butt time". Your employer will care far less about what you do than where you do it. You could institute world peace and make your company a billion dollars from your arm chair at home and your boss will still call it vacation.

As a bit of advice for working in this world... You have no control over when you work, so you must regulate the density of your work in order to keep from burning out. What you would do in a single day at your startup takes people at "normal companies" many days or even weeks to accomplish.

Also, guard your time off like For Knox. If you are willing to "sacrifice for the team" your boss will gladly steal as much time from you as you are not willing to defend. Work ends at 5, anything further will need further compensation, be it overtime or extra vacation. Your boss asking you to work extra with no extra reward is stealing, pure and simple. Use more tact to say that to your boss, but make no mistake, this is what it is.

Lastly, try not to think too much. 90% of what goes on in an office is inane nonsense having nothing to do with the bussiness at hand. Its just part of the deal. Dwelling on this will only frustrate you. Get your zen on and roll with it.

Good luck.

> Assume for the moment that prices of goods and services will stay the same.

Assuming that your popularity, social power, and possibly getting laid a whole lot less are worth nothing to you? The question fails to capture total value, it seems.

Still a very interesting topic. People reason about money in strange ass ways.

The sooner the better. I bet a few people here would want to help out. With the documentation and the like.

I am sure it will kill you. But whats worse is that you are NOT LIVING. I am very passionate about my work. I consider myself a pretty good programmer. I put in long hours occasionally and wish I could code even more. But there are aspects of living on this earth as a human being apart from writing code. Trust me when I say it. YOU ARE NOT LIVING.

I knew there wasn't enough of it, but I didn't realize the problem was so severe...