Tech bros

[qcrisp]

In this thread, I wrote the following:

Quote

I don't know really whether the following observation belongs on this thread, but looking this morning at some of the automated 'publishing news' e-mails I get, I had the feeling I often get looking at them, that somehow, people who have a particular aptitude and inclination for business have organised the world (because they're good at organising) precisely so that it favours and is agreeable to people with a business aptitude and inclination, so that, by definition, people with different dispositions become losers and slackers with nothing to 'bring to the table' - all because of the infuriating people who got up early enough in the morning to set the rules of the game. I feel similarly about technology's place in our life at the moment. A particular mind-type has hijacked our entire culture; they don't want anything to be done without going through the medium of some gadget or other (thus the internet of things: The internet of things: how your TV, car and toys could spy on you | World news | The Guardian etc.). I feel the world would be a decidedly more agreeable place if only it had been organised by people who weren't so organised - a bit like Yeats's complaint about the best lacking all conviction? Anyway, it just drives me mad sometimes.

Since then, I've encountered this article:

http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...less-riff-raff

Maybe my weary rant should have its own thread - that being this thread. (Note that Justin Keller embodies the two kinds of people that I mentioned in my original comment. I think this is a logical, as in consistent - not to mention a vile - convergence.)

[Fenris Technique]

Great article, though I think ultimately it creates a villain to shelter another villain. Easy to condemn the myopia and entitlement displayed by young entrepreneurs and forget that it's not their distasteful attitudes that have left thousands of homeless on the streets of SF. It was fair to take the mayor to task for the state of his city. Suggesting that he hide the 'riff-raff' better, however, was stupid.

As to the self-organizers of the world tilting the pillars of society to favor themselves; I think it may be the natural way of things. Even in the insect world those little over-achieving ants are making a killing.

/shrug