Molly White reviews Chris Dixon’s book “Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet“. She’s…not a fan:

After three chapters in which Dixon provides a (rather revisionist) history of the web to date, explains the mechanics of blockchains, and goes over the types of things one might theoretically be able to do with a blockchain, we are left with “Part Four: Here and Now”, then the final “Part Five: What’s Next”. The name of Part Four suggests that he will perhaps lay out a list of blockchain projects that are currently successfully solving real problems.

This may be why Part Four is precisely four and a half pages long.

Not that I’m the target audience for this book at all, but it sounds like a lot of poorly-established theories without sources to back them up. On top of not disclosing his (or his firm’s) role in the space or the companies he mentions, even when he does cite references, the sources don’t support the claims.

But to me the first sign of dishonesty is this:

RSS is dead, he repeats endlessly throughout the book.

It’s profoundly weird to read RSS’s obituary as a person who checks her very-much-still-alive feed reader several times a day to get everything from cryptocurrency news to dinner ideas, and who rarely encounters a website that doesn’t provide a functional feed. And does Dixon somehow not know that much of the thriving podcasting industry is built on RSS, or that many other apps and websites build features on top of RSS without their users ever even knowing it?

She’s a great writer, and it’s a great piece. Check it out (and subscribe to her RSS!).