295 karma · joined January 2, 2011
In addition to the good topics on economics, they also cover technology, e.g. Kelly on Technology and What Technology Wants - http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2010/11/kelly_on_techno.htm... or Hazlett on Apple vs. Google - http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2010/10/hazlett_on_appl.htm...
My latest favourite is Taleb on Anti-fragility - http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/01/taleb_on_antifr.htm...
Variety and alternatives are good. Opinionated software is good! Mono-culture, design by committee and one single way of doing things (no matter how good or efficient) are all bad.
For example, look at what happened to the US shuttle program, the public manned space program is now limbo because of dependence on a single way of doing things. Thank goodness for the private space enterprises bubbling along and competing on the periphery where there's a glimmer of hope.
Let structures emerge from the outer edges of the internet that are in constant flux. As long as we all agree on the basic protocols in the core of Internet, we'll be fine.
On the other side of this wider debate, my friends think I'm crazy for switching from a very nice Mac GUI, MS Office, QWERTY keyboard et al to Ubuntu et al and work my way up the command line, emacs and relearn Colemak keyboard typing.
I'm starting to enjoy the pay-off of my crazy efforts. My 'sensible' friends don't know what they are missing.