I didn't think it was so bad. I don't have time to go into detail, but briefly:

If you read it as a critique of tech culture generally (and not Tim personally) it's interesting. The critique about polluting language is the crux of it. This is a critique worth diving into more. But the author didn't do a good job of it.

It reads like the author got a whiff of some Philosophy, and then rather than expand the ideas and connect them to the larger culture, he just found a convenient figurehead and wrote some link-bait. He could have easily targeted Richard Dawkins (inventer of the term meme) or any number of others.

The reason I think the article wasn't as bad as some is because I'm just so hungry for philosophical thought in the tech world. Maybe this will make some hackers think critically.

If you like philosophy and want to delve into the discussion about the value of language and it's intersection with software, there's a mailing list here you should check out: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/philosophy-in-a-time...

re: his philosophy. It reminded me of Bacon:

"A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion."

Ugh...episteme's a word that dates back to Plato, although the author seems to use it like Foucault does in 'The Order of Things.'

That is--it's exceptionally NOT "coming up" with the word, assuming you mean to imply he's inventing the word for this article.

I like your first sentence though ;)