The Sublime arrogance of Nicholas Negroponte

“The days of pilot projects are over. When people say we’d like to do 3 or 4000 in our country to see how it works, screw you go to the back of line and someone else’ll do it and then when you figure out this works, you can join as well.�

From a Ted Talk that isn't really worth watching.

I am working on a paper on the OLPC and how it works within development discourse, and seeing as the OLPC has already turned into a giant shitstorm of failure I feel bad poking still more sticks at poor NN.

But I do want to point out that the arrogance of the above quote, is shocking. Like, 'I had to stop the video and say woah a few times' shocking.

Who gave you the power NN, to decide that the opportunity to reflect on your countries most "precious resource" and it's needs was less important then getting enough orders for a scale-based production run? Oh no wait, it's not that you need a mighty full bandwagon to produce the laptops for the price you promised, it's that you've already decided for everyone else how learning works and what will help their children succeed. Guess what - it's faulty and arrogant reasoning in either case, and it runs counter to the core premise of the OLPC project - that people, (children as well), need to learn what's best for themselves and not be "schooled" by you or anyone else.

As a life-long haver of hubris (hell I am supposed to be finished this paper in just under 24 hours). I tip my hat to you sir, it takes one to know one.