My problem: his presentation sounds too contrived. My background is in literature; meaning, I am obsessed with literature and reading and its where most of my knowledge rests.
I love Thoreau. I'm a hiker. I'm learning to program. I really like computers and technology. But I rarely, if ever try to unite the two. Sorry, it just doesn't work.
One things computers try to do is make things scale, as I understand it; understand and organise things with massive computer power. I'm not saying this is a bad thing.
But Thoreau wanted the opposite.
I'm sure the presenter meant well, and his heart was in the right place, but have a close look at the words he uses. They're buzzwords to try to relate to an audience who is further apart from Thoreau's ideology than he might've wished.
He is "rebranding" Thoreau. Thoreau is not a 'content creator', because that word has certain connotations nowadays, which do not apply to him. Yes, this might be semantics, but this type of updated/21st century diction to try to relate/appeal to a new audience sounds contrived.
I applaud his efforts, because at least Thoreau serves as a way to balance out technologists' lives.
But because he was so extreme, all this sounds like yoga instructors talking about living a better life sipping on their Starbucks coffee and buying expensive Yoga mats.
I mean, sure, it's really good that you have recognised the worth of many nonmaterialistic things, but you're not really helping if most of your life is materialistic. Note I'm not forcing anyone into doing away with their material- and technology-driven lives.
All I'm saying is Thoreau's ideology and the modern person are not compatible, unfortunately. And because of that, all we can do is sit around and study his writings conceptually, abstractly, without gaining the experience he wanted everyone to have. Few of us could stand 2 years of living the way he did, yet the presenter actually feels the need to tell his audience, (I'm paraphrasing), "Sure! Thoreau ONLY did it for 2 years, and he had mom and sister come out once a week to help!" Um...how long would the average person be able to stand it?
The OP says it is easy to take Thoreau out of context, because he is so quotable, yet continues to do this very thing!
"Moreover, you must walk like a camel, which is said to be the only beast which ruminates when walking. When a traveler asked Wordsworth's servant to show him her master's study, she answered, 'Here is his library, his study is out of doors.'"
He doesn't mean that you need to go and collect data electronically on people or go on a Google car and photograph every single major street to store it, analyse it, and show it to the world on a computer. If you believe this is what he is saying, this is called "reappropriation".
Lastly, let me quote again from his book titled Walking--a recommended read because it is short, yet illustrates his ideology.
"In short, all good things are wild and free. There is something in a strain of music, whether by its wildness, to speak without satire, reminds me of the cries emitted by wild beasts in their native forests. It is so much of their wildness as I can understand. Give me for my friends and neighbors wild men, not tame ones. The wildness of the savage is but a faint symbol of the awful ferity with which good men and lovers meet."
Stop trying to tame Thoreau's ideas. Let's not try to make ourselves feel better by saying we have some things in common with him or stretching his ideas.
I go into nature to get away from my computers and society and everyone else. It is my own personal struggle or inner conflict. I don't need to try to convince others of how good we can have it if we just adopted Thoreau's ideas, because by our current standards, he would be considered an extremist.
In that same passage above, Thoreau goes on to talk about how domesticated animals need to reassert themselves.
Please, let's not dilute Thoreau just to make us feel better, because (1) most people who don't agree with him will not feel better about it; and (2) most people who want to agree with him will find that they cannot adopt his ideas or lifestyle. I think the HN crowd is too smart to adopt some half-assed idea. They'd rather come up with their own idea or take on how to find a balance between technology, nature, and tackling startup culture.