Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet by Chris Dixon

Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet by Chris Dixon

Part One
Read. Write.

1. Why Networks Matter
I am thinking about something much more important than bombs. I am thinking about
computers.
—John von Neumann
Network design is destiny.
Networks are the organizing framework that enables billions of people
to intelligibly interact. They decide the world’s winners and losers. Their
algorithms decide where money and attention will flow. The structure of a
network guides how that network will evolve and where wealth and power
accumulate. Given the scale of the internet today, software design decisions
up front, regardless of how seemingly small, can have cascading
downstream consequences. Who controls a given network is the central
question when analyzing power on the internet.
This is why critics who knock the tech startup industry for placing more
emphasis on the digital world than the physical world—on “bits” versus
“atoms”—miss the mark. The internet’s influence extends far beyond the
digital realm. It intersects, permeates, and shapes large-scale social and
economic landscapes.
Even pro-tech investors play up the idea. As Peter Thiel, the venture
capitalist and PayPal co-founder, once mused, “We wanted flying cars,
instead we got 140 characters.” The dig takes aim at Twitter, which
originally limited tweets to 140 characters, but it’s intended to pan the
perceived frivolity of the software-obsessed tech industry at large.
Tweets may seem frivolous, but they affect everything from personal
thoughts and opinions to the outcomes of elections and pandemics. People
who claim technologists aren’t focusing enough on problems like energy,
food, transportation, and housing overlook that the digital and the physical

Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet by Chris Dixon