Friday, December 12, 2008

Nerd Values

via Reason Magazine:
If you’re an American urbanite under the age of 30, Craig Newmark has probably helped you or someone you know get a job, get a sofa, or get laid. Newmark, 55, is the founder of Craigslist, the massively popular classified ads website. He’s also a member of a loosely affiliated fraternity of power geeks, along with figures such as Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales, PayPal’s Peter Thiel, and Google’s Larry Page.

What do these guys have in common? Newmark calls it “nerd values,” the drive to earn a comfortable living doing something geeky and then use the money to do some good. Newmark’s extracurricular activities include pushing for greater government transparency via the Sunlight Foundation and helping Barack Obama formulate tech policy.
Do you gave "nerd values"?
power nerds have something else in common too: Many of them use the word libertarian when describing their politics, though usually hesitantly and always with multiple caveats. They see themselves as part of an entrepreneurial class; they like openness and voluntary cooperation; they tend to be skeptical of top-down power structures. But they also see themselves as something new, a little different from the categories that came before. Some of them even endorse new regulations, with Newmark joining Page and others in support of “net neutrality” rules.
The article goes on to interview Newmark or watch it here:



Source: Reason

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