I was very impressed by two aspects of Rand’s “Halfway Across Greenland” post: its literacy and its honesty.
Especially during the hopefully closing business era we’ve all recently lived through, stupidity and dishonesty have ruled the day. Even a year ago, I still despaired that everyone I did business with represented a barely hidden value system based on Milton Friedman-type winner-take-all (at whatever cost) economics. That lying was a proven, valued business tool, where no one I might confront about it had the ability to get beyond endlessly repeating talking points someone else wrote out for them.
At the time, I had little hope for the idealism and optimism of Web 2.0. After all, Web 1.0’s idealism was being corrupted at an accelerating pace to serve political programs it had been developed to defeat (cf., the Chinese internet, U.S. legislation to do substantially the same). The idea of of a web technology/attitude that empowered even greater disintermediation seemed unlikely.
Now, of course, we’re on the cusp of a new political era, one full of optimism and hope. Web 2.0 may be arriving in the popular consciousness at just the right time.
Rand Fishkin’s introspective post from 30,000 feet embodied what the new business world–the post-Friedman-insanity business world–will not only reward, but increasingly require. It rewards business owners/operators who are literate enough to express themselves compellingly in writing and honest enough to be actual human beings in public, with feelings both positive and negative.
I’m a new member of SEOmoz (I just discovered you), but I suspect I’ll be around for a while. Incidentally, this is my first business-related post anywhere.
