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4.19 AVERAGE
4.19 AVERAGE
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
even though it took me a lot of time to finish it (I wanted to do it in one sitting, it seemed feasible) I kinda know why I staggered. This book is a heavy load, it makes you sad because it reminds you or spills the light on the reality we live in. He wanted to want to care less, that's for sure. bad luck for someone who has his type of mind.
I absolutely loved the two biggest pieces in the book (on how congress works and about school). They are must-read i think for those interested.
I absolutely loved the two biggest pieces in the book (on how congress works and about school). They are must-read i think for those interested.
This book consists of a set of essays written by Aaron Swartz from the age of 14 until his suicide 12 years later, and published on various blogs.
The subject matter Swartz tackles is wide ranging, covering political activism in the internet age, education policy, the internet as a collaboration tool, the uses of computers among others. Each set of essays is presented with a brief introduction by someone who knew Swartz, essentially presenting a group of eulogies to his life and work.
Unfortunately although it is clear that Swartz had a great impact on these people the book itself feels incoherent. Although the grouping of the essays is logical, it doesn't give any sense of the development of Swartz's thought. It is clear that he was an intelligent person with an interest in many subjects who read widely, but what is missing in this collection is a thread to draw it all together.
The sections that feel the most cogent are those in which Swartz talks about his work on Wikipedia. The rest feel a little too much like he was read fairly briefly across a topic and written his thoughts down. Swartz hopes that widespread blogging will do a better job of disseminating the truth than the mainstream media, but I'm not convinced that his own work as presented in this book demonstrates that.
His political writing feels most superficial of all, the work of an undergraduate student. That's not a criticism - at the time he wrote most of these essays that's exactly what Swartz was - but it does mean that his thinking is not as insightful as the writers who introduce it like to pretend. He comes across as an interesting, thoughtful, politically active young man, but not perhaps a genius or someone who could 'change the world' as the title claims.
The subject matter Swartz tackles is wide ranging, covering political activism in the internet age, education policy, the internet as a collaboration tool, the uses of computers among others. Each set of essays is presented with a brief introduction by someone who knew Swartz, essentially presenting a group of eulogies to his life and work.
Unfortunately although it is clear that Swartz had a great impact on these people the book itself feels incoherent. Although the grouping of the essays is logical, it doesn't give any sense of the development of Swartz's thought. It is clear that he was an intelligent person with an interest in many subjects who read widely, but what is missing in this collection is a thread to draw it all together.
The sections that feel the most cogent are those in which Swartz talks about his work on Wikipedia. The rest feel a little too much like he was read fairly briefly across a topic and written his thoughts down. Swartz hopes that widespread blogging will do a better job of disseminating the truth than the mainstream media, but I'm not convinced that his own work as presented in this book demonstrates that.
His political writing feels most superficial of all, the work of an undergraduate student. That's not a criticism - at the time he wrote most of these essays that's exactly what Swartz was - but it does mean that his thinking is not as insightful as the writers who introduce it like to pretend. He comes across as an interesting, thoughtful, politically active young man, but not perhaps a genius or someone who could 'change the world' as the title claims.
"What a great mind we have lost". That is the first thing it came to my mind when I finished the last paragraph of this compilation of Aaron's writings. Not only was an outstanding programmer (RSS, web.py, Reddit, etc), but a humble human being who dare to think different and go against the stream and construct an independent view on politics, media, culture, education, etc.
If you don't know who he was, this book is a pretty good way to get started on his views: what the independent internet counter culture is, and independent thinking is like.
If you don't know who he was, this book is a pretty good way to get started on his views: what the independent internet counter culture is, and independent thinking is like.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Every time I pirate stuff, Swartz would be proud of me.
I read his blog before when an author I followed shared his documentary. But this time revisiting this organized compilation of Swartz’s writings, everything feels more resonant. It gives me a sense that there are still other people working in the tech industry truly care about integrity, despite the boom of Generative AI and crypto scams. The first chapter, which discusses Free Culture, may be somewhat dated, but interesting nevertheless, as this has become a gray area with the birth of data crawling and privacy in the era of web 3.0 / 4.0 / 5.0, whatever it is.
The downside of this book is that it also should be able freely shareable (I pirated the ebook, duh), just like the documentary on YouTube through the Creative Commons. I’ll leave some links here to remind ourselves that we need to strive for a better world, as well as for anyone interested in the life of the Internet's own boy.
- The documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vz06QO3UkQ&ab_channel=moviemaniacsDE
- A well-written article about the darker side of Swartz’s mind: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/03/11/requiem-for-a-dream
- My fav entry that didn’t make it in the book: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dalio
I read his blog before when an author I followed shared his documentary. But this time revisiting this organized compilation of Swartz’s writings, everything feels more resonant. It gives me a sense that there are still other people working in the tech industry truly care about integrity, despite the boom of Generative AI and crypto scams. The first chapter, which discusses Free Culture, may be somewhat dated, but interesting nevertheless, as this has become a gray area with the birth of data crawling and privacy in the era of web 3.0 / 4.0 / 5.0, whatever it is.
The downside of this book is that it also should be able freely shareable (I pirated the ebook, duh), just like the documentary on YouTube through the Creative Commons. I’ll leave some links here to remind ourselves that we need to strive for a better world, as well as for anyone interested in the life of the Internet's own boy.
- The documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vz06QO3UkQ&ab_channel=moviemaniacsDE
- A well-written article about the darker side of Swartz’s mind: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/03/11/requiem-for-a-dream
- My fav entry that didn’t make it in the book: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dalio
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
I noticed (and pre-ordered) this book after trying to find a specific entry I read a while ago on Swartz's blog, and I'm glad I did. Although I had read some of the book's included entries before, I was happy to see that it reproduced some previously unpublished, longer essays that Swartz gave as seminars or talks. The editors helpfully categorized his writings into headings (e.g. "Free Culture," "Politics," and "Media") and recruited various writers, thinkers, and friends of Swartz to frame the sections, which they introduced in order to give context to his writings.
As for the content itself, I loved Swartz's writing from start to finish. He had a prescient view on many aspects of internet culture. As a small example, he suggested in 2006 (age 19) in an essay about Wikipedia that for allegations of a non-neutral point of view, "a notice saying neutrality was disputed could appear on the top of the page until the complaint was properly closed" (Swartz 47) which has since been implemented. The date and year he wrote each essay is included under each title, and most of the essays are short (a page or so front and back), easily digestible but with plenty of jumping-off points for further consideration and research on the reader's part.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in technology, politics, and how they intersect, as well as anyone who would like a closer look into the life of Aaron Swartz, a remarkable person who the planet lost much, much too soon.
As for the content itself, I loved Swartz's writing from start to finish. He had a prescient view on many aspects of internet culture. As a small example, he suggested in 2006 (age 19) in an essay about Wikipedia that for allegations of a non-neutral point of view, "a notice saying neutrality was disputed could appear on the top of the page until the complaint was properly closed" (Swartz 47) which has since been implemented. The date and year he wrote each essay is included under each title, and most of the essays are short (a page or so front and back), easily digestible but with plenty of jumping-off points for further consideration and research on the reader's part.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in technology, politics, and how they intersect, as well as anyone who would like a closer look into the life of Aaron Swartz, a remarkable person who the planet lost much, much too soon.
There was some good content in here, and some that I'm less sure about. Some of the areas the book covered, economics for example, are less familiar to me so I don't know enough to dispute the author on them. Where this book lost points for me was towards the end when Swartz got into writing about education. He had some valid criticism on the way modern schools operate with over-reliance on testing and potential stifling of creativity. But, he was completely wrong on the history of public schools in the US. He claimed that the first public schools were created to turn children into compliant factory workers in the 1830s, and that's just not true. His critiques of education throughout history stemmed from this false information, it seems to me like that makes his conclusions on education suspect. It also makes me wonder what else he got wrong.
So, there was some interesting material here, but readers should take it with a grain of salt.
So, there was some interesting material here, but readers should take it with a grain of salt.
I noticed (and pre-ordered) this book after trying to find a specific entry I read a while ago on Swartz's blog, and I'm glad I did. Although I had read some of the book's included entries before, I was happy to see that it reproduced some previously unpublished, longer essays that Swartz gave as seminars or talks. The editors helpfully categorized his writings into headings (e.g. "Free Culture," "Politics," and "Media") and recruited various writers, thinkers, and friends of Swartz to frame the sections, which they introduced in order to give context to his writings.
As for the content itself, I loved Swartz's writing from start to finish. He had a prescient view on many aspects of internet culture. As a small example, he suggested in 2006 (age 19) in an essay about Wikipedia that for allegations of a non-neutral point of view, "a notice saying neutrality was disputed could appear on the top of the page until the complaint was properly closed" (Swartz 47) which has since been implemented. The date and year he wrote each essay is included under each title, and most of the essays are short (a page or so front and back), easily digestible but with plenty of jumping-off points for further consideration and research on the reader's part.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in technology, politics, and how they intersect, as well as anyone who would like a closer look into the life of Aaron Swartz, a remarkable person who the planet lost much, much too soon.
As for the content itself, I loved Swartz's writing from start to finish. He had a prescient view on many aspects of internet culture. As a small example, he suggested in 2006 (age 19) in an essay about Wikipedia that for allegations of a non-neutral point of view, "a notice saying neutrality was disputed could appear on the top of the page until the complaint was properly closed" (Swartz 47) which has since been implemented. The date and year he wrote each essay is included under each title, and most of the essays are short (a page or so front and back), easily digestible but with plenty of jumping-off points for further consideration and research on the reader's part.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in technology, politics, and how they intersect, as well as anyone who would like a closer look into the life of Aaron Swartz, a remarkable person who the planet lost much, much too soon.