Joanna –
You bring back fond memories that are worthy of note. Mine were from Route 128 companies in Massachusetts. It was before the suits and sales-driven culture took over. Software was a fantastic new medium for smart, creative people from all the disciplines to work in. Software is like an abstract machine freed of the limitations of the physical world. There is no friction or wear. Reproduction costs were infinitesimal. For information there, is no Newtonian Law of Conservation – it can be copied infinitely without loss. Diverse, interesting people were attracted by this and a free-wheeling culture evolved, some of which survives today in the developer community. Peter From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 12:19 AM To: Progressive Economics Subject: Re: [Pen-l] Graeber Sillicon Valley was not a single thing. I started working in the valley in 1983, and I'm still there. I saw the foundation of computer technology and applications being created, one day at a time, by mathematicians, philosophers, egyptologists, physicists, musicians, classical scholars, etc. Computer science degrees were few and far between. This is something I'll never forget -- the cross-pollination, the mutual respect, and the creativity of people who mostly liked the work they were doing and who didn't know from one day to another, what would work, or what they might need to come up with next. Yes of course there scams and the MBA's took over everything. But for a while, it was kinda fun. Joanna _____ the problem with Graeber is not his factual grasp of Silicon Valley history it is his absurd fantasy about that history. Of course the question for deLong is his absurd fantasy about Obama - does he think Graeber is more dangerous or less dangerous than a President willing to shred the federal securities laws (as in the new JOBS Act) to dial for dollars among the Valley elite? _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
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