I absolutely love that!
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Ah, Cory Doctorow. An anarco-syndicalist techbro who thinks that multibillion-dollar infrastructure needed to support his “utopia” will magically pre-exist. A utopia based on a social capital/reputational currency he (idioitcally) calls “whuffie.” As if that wouldn’t turn into a hellish dystopia inside of a month.
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Thank you so much for posting this link. These programs make more sense to me now that I see them in writing. My goodness, what a total mess. I feel so bad for CMs who will need to explain this to guests. Especially guests who are not really familiar with tech or MDE. Maybe give out flow charts?
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Just look at what happened in China with that social capital program.
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I agree, it is the lack of predictability- money wise and schedule wise that makes me think this doesn’t fit with the experience many people want.
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This was exactly what I was getting at from a “credibility” stand point. I hope Disney balances their needs with the users experience.
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I think a good introduction to Doctorow’s outlook is his novella “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.” Just don’t think too long on how the entire world somehow achieved a post-scarcity economy and that Disney would just abandon the entire WDW resort to bands of rabid fans with no more than a shrug.
Think of him as Neal Stephenson without the self-awareness or sense of humor.
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Oh, did anyone catch at the end of the podcast the mention that Jim has been working on a piece about the revloving door at Disney corporate- where people come to Disney, figure out a way to make the parks money as a launch to their next corporate gig. Which fails to take the long term user/brand image in mind.
I am fascinated from an organizational/corporate culture perspectuve.
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The medium article is full of interesting observations, but I found myself disagreeing with virtually every conclusion he drew. It kind of made me angry to read it, tbh. There is a still a Part VI of the series so I may never know what his point is.
I think it’s a little fascinating how spun out we all get about a mere speculation. I’m just as guilty… no finger pointing going on here, just an observation. It’s not helping my stress level 
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I’ve read some of Doctorows stuff. He’s really not my thing. But I do love Neal Stephenson. The Diamond Age is my favorite.
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Snow Crash is hands down my favorite book and I recommend it to everyone. Who doesn’t like a book that includes a computer virus that impacts people biologically, the history of linquistics, and 30 minute pizza delivery run by the Mafia! 
While I enjoyed reading DIamond Age, Zodiac, the Baroque Cycle and many others …other than Snow Crash, I will also recommend Cryptonomicon. The in depth look at encryption and the juxtaposition of modern day with WWII is really amazing. It may have also taken me the entire, very lengthy book, to consistently pronounce Cryptonomicon correctly!
I haven’t read Doctorow, but both of my kids (15 & 20) enjoy him. I suspect ds15 has read most of his books.
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I did catch this and I cannot wait to read it! I think Joe Rohde’s departure in particular was so interesting to me. Why are they leaving? Lack of appreciation? Lack of compensation? I NEED TO KNOW! When we went in June, it was a mess. There were so many new CMs, that it appeared to me that a lot of people who were let go last year did not come back. Those more-seasoned employees represented years of experience that you just cannot gain overnight. I cannot imagine how difficult it is to replace Imagineers who were with the company a majority of their working careers.
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I love Snow Crash also!
I think my love for Diamond Age lies in the fact that it was the first steampunk novel I ever read, and i was just immersed into the genre and ate it up. I actually enjoy both hard sci fi and high fantasy, and i had never dreamed there could be a melding of the two. 
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Chapek’s Quarterly earnings call this week (on Thursday) should be interesting!
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This baffles my mind. When I was a kid, I dreamed of working at Disney. It seemed like such a cool place where creatives were achieving greatness in every field - animation, engineering, film, television, and even business.
But from what I’ve heard, it’s a nightmare to actually work there. Something is broken in the culture.
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It reminds me of IBM and their culture. I don’t know if its changed but I know it was strict.
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“I’m sure they’ll listen to Reason.”
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It really varies by where you work. My ex works at Feature Animation and has (with the exception of a 2ish year break working at Blizzard) since 1999. Overall for him a very good place to work but he definitely has had his complaints through the years about various things. He has a silver pass (or whatever they call it these days). It used to be REALLY good but even before we broke up it wasn’t AS good. That was by 2007. A friend of ours was an Imagineer and even back around 2000 he wasn’t happy about decisions being made by Corporate. I’m sure things are worse now. Btw, touring Disneykand with an Imagineer is like getting your own VIP tour! I highly recommend it! 
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From what I’ve seen behind the scenes, this still seems like a good workplace. I love Jennifer Lee! She seems like she would be a great person to work for.
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