David Weinberger is the author of Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room, a senior researcher at Harvard University’s Berkman Center, and co-director of the Harvard Library Lab. Before giving a talk about how the Internet is changing knowledge, he sat down in the green room to offer his endorsement of a book called New Jersey’s Famous Turnpike Witch—but was less willing to cop to any bad habits.
When did you first start using the Internet?
1986—at a software company I worked at. They used email, they used newsgroups.
What’s the last book you read?
I read a friend’s book called New Jersey’s Famous Turnpike Witch, which was surprisingly good.
What do you watch regularly on TV?
So You Think You Can Dance.
How many pairs of shoes do you own?
I don’t have any shoes.
How do you get from home to work?
On the bus. I listen to NPR Podcasts.
Do you have any bad habits?
Nothing I’d want to talk about.
Where did you go on your last vacation?
Santa Monica.
How do you take your coffee?
Black. … Is it colorful that we’ve been vegetarians for 30 years?
What was your worst subject in school?
It’s a choice between math and Spanish.
Do you play any instruments?
Like every male my age I played guitar.