Is HN Scared of Discussing Andrew Keen's 'The Internet Is Not the Answer'? | Hacker News Reader

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

6 pointsmarco117 comments

Is his book controversial? Yes.

Does he have all the right answers? Probably not.

But are his questions worth being asked and discussed? Absolutely.

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.

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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.

...no?

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

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.

There are more important things in life than internet points.

Not personally, in any case, as I'm not the author.

But important topics usually get the points and thus visibility they deserve, which leaves the question if this book does not deserve it or has just been ignored.

Apart from that, you're obviously right about the timing.

Is this book worth reading?

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

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.'"

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...

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

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.

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.

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.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-the-inter...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/1134786...

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

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-andrew-keen...

http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/blaming-the-internet-is-no...

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/review...

Or maybe the book just hasn't made a big splash, and people don't spend a lot of time talking about random books with no impact? I've never heard of it; nobody I know has mentioned it.

So it's not particularly far-fetched to think that we all, collectively, have avoided this topic and rejected the criticism.

No, it's not far-fetched, but I also don't see any particular reason to think that this is so.

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!

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.

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