Modern Unconferences Have the Internet Like Law of Two Feet

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Bhut: We used to live in a culture of norms, where there was an expectation sort of polite participation. And i hated it. One of the most wonderful things that has happened as a result of the internet is that those online internet norms are percolating into mid space. Modern unconferences have the internete like law of two feet, which is, if you're not actually interested in the conversation, if the person is boring, you get up and leave. Do something better with your time.

Writer and management consultant Venkatesh Rao talks about Waldenponding with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Rao coined the term Waldenponding to describe various levels of retreating from technology akin to how Thoreau extolled the virtues of retreating from social contact and leading a quieter life at Walden Pond. Rao argues that the value of Waldenponding is overrated and that extreme Waldenponding is even somewhat immoral. Rao sees online intellectual life as a form of supercomputer, an intellectual ecosystem that produces new knowledge and intellectual discourse. He encourages all of us to contribute to that intellectual ecosystem even when it can mean losing credit for some of our ideas and potentially some of our uniqueness.