How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Andrew Keen
Story byBoris Veldhuijzen van Zanten
Boris is a serial entrepreneur who founded not only TNW, but also V3 Redirect Services (sold), HubHop Wireless Internet Provider (sold), and(show all)Boris is a serial entrepreneur who founded not onlyTNW, but also V3 Redirect Services (sold), HubHop Wireless Internet Provider (sold), andpr.co. Boris is very active on Twitter as@Borisand Instagram:@Boris.
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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:
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.
