The Seven Rules of Trust
A short book, and one that felt homey.
I think I grew up on the internet Jimmy Wales helped make. I think the openness, transparency and community building remains a guiding star for what technology products should be. Especially in government.
In some ways, this made it a nice read but not an earthshaking one for me.
Though I suspect it’s because he’s preaching to the converted.
Along the way it was nice to hear something of the project’s history, more of its community and its relentless focus on being “an encyclopedia”.
I remember my sixth form history teacher warning us “not to trust Wikipedia, read the books, it’s inaccurate and could be written by anyone”. I suspect until shortly before he’d have been right about that. From then, until now however it’s a beacon of trust and reliability.
Now, as the AI LLM tools emerge (that would have never been possible without Wikipedia), I feel like I’d be the guy saying “don’t trust the LLM, click through to the wikipedia page and read that to verify”.
Hopefully that statement stands the test of time a bit better.
After "The Seven Rules of Trust" I read: Intermezzo
Before "The Seven Rules of Trust" I read: V13: Chronicle of a Trial