ecommercematt

I gather JotSpot has some good features, but if I were using a wiki to manage mission-critical information (particularly if said mission had anything to do with the internet or computers), I'd be hesitant to have it hosted on somebody else's server (particularly Google's). If I need a structured wiki (not a Mediawiki-esque free-for-all), I go with TWiki, despite its clunkiness.

Here is a link to a comparison of sorts, if anyone is interested:

http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/JotSpot

I can see where you're coming from, however, at Sudbury Valley, there is no curriculum whatsoever. Plenty of hackers and serial entrepreneurs emerge from SVS, but there's no pressure to study anything at all there.

The main problem I have with the Hacker School idea is that compared to the Sudbury Model (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_model), it is stifling and pushy. I'm a Sudbury Valley alumnus, and I doubt the time I spent there glued to computers all day would have been as fulfilling as it was, if I were doing so under coercion (and I bet even the real deal hackers I know from there, as opposed to mere computerphiles, like me, would agree). Also, I got somewhat bored with computers for a while, and I'm glad nobody forced me to stick with them, so I could return to them later with greater intensity fueled by nothing but pure desire.

My criticism of this idea is similar to Paul Graham's criticism of "incubators."

Here are the Grahamster's words on the subject I'm referring to (http://www.paulgraham.com/sfp.html):

I've heard Y Combinator described as an "incubator." Actually we're the opposite: incubators exert more control than ordinary VCs, and we make a point of exerting less. Among other things, incubators usually make you work in their office-- that's where the word "incubator" comes from. That seems the wrong model. If investors get too involved, they smother one of the most powerful forces in a startup: the feeling that it's your own company.

Incubators were conspicuous failures during the Bubble. There's still debate about whether this was because of the Bubble, or because they're a bad idea. My vote is they're a bad idea. I think they fail because they select for the wrong people. When we were starting a startup, we would never have taken funding from an "incubator." We can find office space, thanks; just give us the money. And people with that attitude are the ones likely to succeed in startups.

Indeed, one quality all the founders shared this summer was a spirit of independence.

He said "if investors get too involved, they smother one of the most powerful forces in a startup: the feeling that it's your own company." Allow me to slightly modify this quote to illustrate my point:

If teachers get too involved, they smother one of the most powerful forces in an independent person: the feeling that you're in charge of your own destiny.

In other words, give someone genuine independence, and he'll go for it if he's got the stuff.