Andrew Keen is visiting The Netherlands to speak at Marketing3 today and last night I was invited to meet him for a drink. As you might know Andrew Keen is the self proclaimed ‘Antichrist of Silicon Valley’ and the author of the bestselling book “The cult of the amateur“. He is hated by many tech lovers and visionaries and I was slightly nervous at the prospect of meeting him as a Next Web fan.
Vertically Challenged
The first thing you notice when you meet Andrew Keen is that he is a lot shorter than you think. Okay, I’m Dutch and we are the tallest people in the world but even for American standards Keen seems, well, vertically challenged. The second thing you notice is that he is actually a flexible and reasonable guy (something he keeps repeating throughout the evening) with great stories and a good sense of humor.
The Entertainer
Most of all, Keen is an entertainer. He likes to stir up a good discussion and not because he wants to make enemies (although he has many and keeps mentioning them “Oh, you know who also really hates me! Lawrence Lessig! And did I mention Tim O’Reilly? He HATES me too!”) but simply because he thinks that everything gets better with competition. In typical Andrew Keen fashion, since there seemed to be no discussion on Web2.0 and only people in favor – he decided to become, well, the Antichrist of Web2.0.
I asked him about his plans for the future he smiled and said “What is even more sacred than Web2.0? Democracy! I am going to write a book about that”.
I cringed in my seat. The audacity! Is nothing sacred? Nope, not for Andrew Keen. He makes a living on questioning what nobody wants to question.
The Internal Entrepreneur
At the end of the conversation Keen managed to surprise me again. We were talking about technology in general and suddenly he started talking about his dreams for his own start-up:
“You know, I have nothing against technology, or the web, in general. I tell people to use all the Web2.0 tools all the time. They are great! In fact, my dream is to start my own Web2.0 start-up. Something with good content delivery.
Really! If you would take a dedicated team of professionals I’m sure it would be possible to take on CNN. Using Web2.0 tools and a team of smart people it is certainly possible.
That is my dream.”
A Guy With A Dream
Andrew Keen presents himself as the Antichrist of Web2.0 but underneath that wrapper he is actually just an idealist who thinks that throwing a monkey wrench into the machinery is a necessary act to make the machinery better. Sometimes to get to the truth you need to play good cop/bad cop. Andrew Keen plays bad cop and can be very convincing.
Just remember that besides bad cop, antichrist, author and monkey wrench slinger he is also just a guy with a dream.
Sounds like a “Pirate”. I like Priates. Remember what Seth Godin said. Thanks for the post.
thanks Boris. Next time we have drinks, i’ll wear my high heels
see you in April
ak
Nice read Boris.
I happened to finish his book today and it’s always good to know a little more about the personality behind the writer.
Thanks
I thought the book was a bit of a disappointment, actually. Too much stuff that just wasn’t correct. Good to hear the guy behind it is a good laugh.
Andy doesn’t bash technology, he is appalled that 2.0 techies have an unchallenged messiah complex (hence the anti christ). 2.0 is not going to make the world a better place, just because it tears down institutions that relied on controlled one way communications. Having a debate on principle and uncensored dialogue is a very healthy R/W and very 2.0 thing to embrace. You need to invite Andy to the next web.
Making a living off bashing an emerging technology without really understanding what it is, then secretly embracing it, is good? Because it’s cheeky? Sad state of affairs, imho.
I didn’t say he bashes technology. I’m saying he bashes a particular emerging technology without knowing what it is or what its unique advantages are. He polarises the debate and makes a gimmick out of doing exactly that. Hence his ‘antichrist’ nickname and his business card printed in this post.
If he were an idealist as Boris claims, he wouldn’t have to troll by stating that Web 2.0 is assaulting our economy and destroying our culture. That’s got nothing to do with tossing a monkey wrench into a machine. It’s trolling, making him a one trick pony and a bad one at that.
The reason he’s able to sell out doing this, is that traditional media, such as the Volkskrant in the Netherlands, are dying to hear somebody reassure them that their talent still has value. And it of course does, but so does innovation.
Keen takes Wikipedia, the blogosphere and sites like MySpace as examples of Web 2.0. Sure, if that’s all there’s to Web 2.0, I might agree. But he dismisses the sites that allow for new levels of abstraction and for the aggregation of knowledge. Folksonomies. Recommendation models. Try to tell him about these and he’ll just tell you that’s tech talk that’s way over his head.
So much for actually understanding what you’re criticising. Boo.