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Comment by ggm | Hacker News Reader

Maybe it is just me, but the ritualistic formalisms around this kind of behaviour feel like a peculiarly american trend. It reminded me of the Henry Ford run backwoods camps he would do, when other multi millionaires and he played at their childhood while deciding which labor unions to suppress in their corporate interest.

It's creepy.

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Idk if you actually read the post, but a lot of people early to computing didn't become multi-millionaires. Lee Felsenstein, who helped start the Homebrew Computer Club, has a Patreon where people support his projects and writing now. And the ones in this group who did, like Brewster Kahle, have used their wealth to fund nonprofits like the Internet Archive.

Yea, I know. The thing is, I am probably indulging in self-criticism because I have been in networks since 1979 and I judge my own role as fleeting and incidental. Envy of their success in transformative change makes me hesitant to want to engage as they do and I critique what they do in that light.

Its too easy to wind up pontificating round the fire to the young 'uns .. At IETF we have a greybeard problem, and its sometimes hard to decide which side of things to be, on "older is better" and "newer is better" and "older is not newer but they are both interesting" debates.

I suppose if you've run in these circles a long time some of what you hear from the greybeards feels a bit tired. But as someone with just two decades in computers (okay three if you count hobbyist teenage years), I actually think some of those old ideas are much more interesting than what passes for political discourse amongst techies today. I mean has RMS' ideology ever been more relevant?

>>> Its too easy to wind up pontificating round the fire to the young 'uns

I'd say pontificating is inevitable. If you are part of the roots, and then you see that the internet didn't go where you wanted, then I guess, your best solution is to maintain your ideal and say "we tried, we failed" with a subtle corollary : since it failed, it means our goal was the right one".

Plus I'm sure it's very comforting and satisfying to talk about the past to people who somehow admire you (else they wouldn't be there listening)

Staying off those feelings to be able to think properly is really tough and requires some special kind of personality which is, I guess, as rare as technological savvy.

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