“Breaking Smart is a technology analysis site. We aim to produce a binge-worthy collection of essays approximately once every 2 years. Season 1, comprising 20 essays totaling approximately 30,000 words, is written by Venkatesh Rao and illustrated by Grace Witherell. This inaugural season is an in-depth exploration of Marc Andreessen’s observation that “software is eating the world.” Season 2 (due out in 2017) is currently under development…..
- Introduction (by Marc Andreessen)
- A New Soft Technology
- Getting Reoriented
- Towards a Mass Flourishing
- Purists versus Pragmatists
- Agility and Illegibility
- Rough Consensus and Maximal Interestingness
- Running Code and Perpetual Beta
- Software as Subversion
- Prometheans and Pastoralists
- The Allure of Pastoralism
- Understanding Elite Discontent
- The Principle of Generative Pluralism
- The Future in the Rear-View Mirror
- A Tale of Two Computers
- The Immortality of Bits
- Tinkering versus Goals
- The Zemblanity of Containers
- Free as in Beer, and as in Speech
- The Serendipity of Streams
- Breaking Smart
- Acknowledgments“