Top all-time · #375
Nicholas Carr
Personal blog · roughtype.comculturephilosophyeconomics
Nicholas Carr writes ROUGH TYPE, a personal blog at roughtype.com about culture, philosophy and economics. Since 2007, 146 different Hacker News readers have linked it 392 times, most often “Zuckerberg’s world”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.
Rarely recommended · 2 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Nicholas Carr's blog for its critiques of digital platforms, the web and tech utopianism, and cite his terms like 'digital sharecropping' and 'context collapse'. Commenters call it worth following as a contrast to HN's tech optimism.
- Recommended for · 2 comments
- Commenters call the blog worth following as a contrast to HN's tech-utopianism, and say a post on bones and driving was a great piece.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Nicholas Carr's blog
Most-linked posts?
- Zuckerberg’s world4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2017-02-18
- From context collapse to content collapse4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-01-13
- Smartness is a zero-sum game4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2015-09-08
- Digital Sharecropping (2006)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2017-05-08
- TikTok and the Coming of Infinite Media4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-01-04
- I Want Wings3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-12-13
- The people of the metaverse3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-02-21
- /?p=6343 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-12-13
- Students to e-textbooks: no thanks2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-02-24
- Crowd control at eBay2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2008-02-13
What Hacker News says?
"Digital Sharecropping" is Nicholas Carr's term. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/07/connect... http://www.roughtype.com/?p=634
Comment linking /?p=634
on “The Facebook Algorithm Mom Problem”Submitted From context collapse to content collapse as a story · 224 points
HN discussionSmartness is a zero-sum game http://www.roughtype.com/?p=6452
Comment linking /?p=6452
on “Due to a problem with AWS, many "smart" vacuums or doorbells will stop working”Submitted The future’s so bright, I gotta wear blinders as a story · 145 points
HN discussionThis advice goes back to previous generations of web entrepreneurs, way back to 2015 or earlier: https://www.roughtype.com/?p=634 " It’s a sharecropping system, but the sharecroppers are generally happy because their interest lies in self-expression or socializing, not in making money, and, besides, the economic value of each of their individual contributions is trivial. "
Comment linking /?p=634
on “Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms (2021)”Submitted Larry and Sergey: A Valediction as a story · 119 points
HN discussionKTool[0] is fairly new so I can't claim it "outperform" Amazon's solution. However if you read the recent reviews from their Chrome Extension page[1], the majority of complaints was that the article never arrived. I just tried sending this article[2] and 10 minutes later it still hasn't delivered yet. This article contains a lot of images, so I understand it's not going to be quick, but with KTool, it does deliver w…
Comment linking /?p=1378
on “How does Firefox's Reader View work? (2020)”Submitted Utopia Is Creepy as a story · 78 points
HN discussionWhy do you insist on picking the most unlikely interpretations of whatever someone is saying? :-) What I meant was that people will still write even if not getting paid, not that they actively prefer not getting paid for their writing and putting it on the web for free. And when there's tons of supply (as there will be if people write regardless of demand), prices go down, meaning that very few people actually will…
Comment linking /?p=1220
on “A Day in the Life of a Freelance Journalist”Submitted From context collapse to content collapse (2020) as a story · 77 points
HN discussionIt's sometimes described as 'digital sharecropping'[0]. Depending on your reason for participating you may get some economic benefit (perhaps as share or exposure for your business) while the platform both takes the bulk of any profits and completely controls the relationship. Or you may get nothing, of course, other than some magic Internet points and a faintly tarnished sense of fun. [0]: https://www.roughtype.com…
Comment linking /?p=634
on “Leaving Quora after 10 years of answering questions”Submitted What is it like to be a smartphone? as a story · 69 points
HN discussionOne approach which I think has a future, would be for educators to produce printed textbooks (i know... i know... very retro;) and make a reasonable profit from each sale. The value chain will be like: author -$20-> print-on-demand-shop -$30-> shipping -$35-> reader This is essentially a streamlining of the traditional textbook publishing model, focussed towards authors' interests (66% margins is the kind of incenti…
Comment linking /?p=2922
on “Why education startups do not succeed”Submitted You are your phone as a story · 68 points
HN discussionThe article starts by mentioning Nick Carr, who recently wrote a book about how the Internet is ruining our mind/attention span. Steven Pinker disagrees[1]. (Which Carr tries to rebut[2]) I'm always a bit scared about the large influence a few pop-sci titles have, especially the ones that aren't even written by scientists. [1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/opinion/11Pinker.html?_r=1 [2]: http://www.roughtype.co…
Comment linking /archives/2010/06/steven_pinker_a.php
on “How to Focus”Submitted Don't say you weren't warned as a story · 62 points
HN discussionRegarding the future of communities while they grow and "technical tweaks", eBay recently adjusted its policies to improve its community quality, restricting sellers from leaving negative feedback to buyers: http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2008/02/crowd_control.php
Comment linking /archives/2008/02/crowd_control.php
on “PG on trolls”Submitted Is Facebook geared to dullards? as a story · 60 points
HN discussionLet me recommend Carr's take on the manifest: http://www.roughtype.com/?p=7651
Comment linking /?p=7651
on “Encouraging individual sovereignty and a healthy commons”Submitted The saddest, stupidest sentence I've ever read as a story · 59 points
HN discussionYou might also be interested in Nicholas Carr's blog, he writes about similar things. I think it is worth following it, if only as a contrast to the tech-utopianism of HN: http://www.roughtype.com/index.php
Comment linking /index.php
on “The lost world of physicality”Submitted The Flattening of Ebook Sales as a story · 51 points
HN discussionNicholas Carr wrote a great piece on this exact topic. You might like it. It looks like his site is struggling so I'll include an archive.org link too. Here are his last three paragraphs: "There’s something bigger going on here, and I confess that I’m still a little fuzzy about it. Silicon Valley seems to have a good deal of trouble appreciating, or even understanding, what I’ll term informal experience. It’s only w…
Comment linking /?p=5813
on “How modern life is transforming the human skeleton”Submitted Netflix's tail massage as a story · 51 points
HN discussionWe're only catching up to Japan, that's all. ;) For better or worse.... "It used to be you would get on the train with junior-high-school girls and it would be noisy as hell with all their chatting,” Yumiko Sugiura, a journalist who writes about Japanese youth culture, told me. “Now it’s very quiet—just the little tapping of thumbs.” http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2009/03/realtime_kills.php
Comment linking /archives/2009/03/realtime_kills.php
on “Sad as Hell”Submitted The iPad Luddites as a story · 47 points
HN discussionI agree that it's nice to see hard data on this but "the neverending stream of basically anecdotal information" should be the first clue that this is basically what everybody seems to already know except for the foundation. This is not even remotely a new issue as their data and numerous complaints, articles, comments etc. shows, but it's taken them more than half a decade to even bother to notice it. Here's from 20…
Comment linking /archives/2007/08/rise_of_the_wik.php
on “Kids these days: the quality of new Wikipedia editors over time”Submitted Nothing much happened as a story · 42 points
HN discussionIt seems to be an extreme case of digital sharecropping. http://www.roughtype.com/?p=1600
Comment linking /?p=1600
on “Epic Fail: The Rise and Fall of Demand Media”Submitted Students to e-textbooks: no thanks as a story · 40 points
HN discussion
