After I started reading this book, I also found some YouTube vids on Aaron Swartz. I watched the documentary, The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz, and that definitely influenced my emotions when reading the collected essays in this book.
While I'll give the content 5 stars, it was definitely published with bad intentions. However, who cares, if you didn't pay for the copy, which I didn't ;(
The book was donated by anonymous.
Nonetheless, Swartz was a well-spoken, young mind that eloquently conveyed passion when communicating his ideas. We're so fortunate to have had his ideas recorded, but a mind that develops that fast at such a young age also burns fast, as a burning star.
Aaron Swartz was an intellectual and an old soul, and he would love to see everyone in the world attempting to make a change, impact their community, and "think deeply about things, don't just go along with it".
On the side of communities, it mentions how it is so important to act locally to impact the "system", as the gov is 99.9% corrupt, and when shit hits the fan, we can't really rely on them to solve a local problem. There is a major section about law and how it works, or should I say how it is played.
Education was also an important topic to Swartz. He believed in "unschooling", or letting children decide for themselves what to dedicate their time on. Other than also believing that the education system and its standardized ways are so ineffective and were created by scheming moguls to "brainwash" students and eventually their employees to be more disciplined, follow the herd mentality, have low self-esteem, be afraid to question authority, etc., Swartz also believed that "apprentice education" is a way better philosophy. If a student has "reason", "inspiration", "questions", and "perseverance", there is really no system that can stop him/her, so just keep on truckin' and let the curious mind fly.
As a software engineer, I feel the obligation to continue working to solve socio-economic problems with technology. One can only attempt to do, and see the outcome when all is said and done. As Swartz says, "for those who genuinely care about their legacies, it doesn't seem like there's much choice".
One of the ideas that I'm very passionate about is to promote the free access to scholar findings, as it should be shared with the world to put all of our minds together. While the access to free information is not enough, community apps should be created to facilitate the engagement on the topic and craft an ironclad solution that covers many vantage points.
Speaking of sharing information, what about sharing Open Source solutions? That should be a given when creating a tool that smooths the sharp edges of the developer experience. Even if it is not a developer tool, if it's a community app, why not do it Open Source, so the community can feel safe with how the data is used and even contribute with improved features?
On the note of Open Source, DO NOT FORGET TO DONATE TO YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBOR DEVS!
Viva the Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto!