10 Membranes

» Review of Free

Usually I put Malcolm Gladwell and Chris Anderson in the same category as slightly smug, know it all, mildly, inoffensively jocular, nominally pithy writers convinced of their own “smartness” and originality, who cater mainly for the pressed shirt sub-MBA golf club wielding bore or the quasi-literate media tosser, vainly believing that having read one half assed book they are not total retards, oh no, but are actually able to lecture everyone else in Dalston about viral theory or some other nonsense.

Aside from that though Gladwell makes some good points: “in order to make money, YouTube has been obliged to pay for programs that aren’t crap. To recap: YouTube is a great example of Free, except that Free technology ends up not being Free because of the way consumers respond to Free, fatally compromising YouTube’s ability to make money around Free, and forcing it to retreat from the “abundance thinking” that lies at the heart of Free. Credit Suisse estimates that YouTube will lose close to half a billion dollars this year. If it were a bank, it would be eligible for TARP funds.”