f7d9395c_atings_and_reviews___Gwern_net__Review
[Title] Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website [Author] Daniel Domscheit-Berg [Rating] ★★★ [Year] 2011 [Read] 2011/11/08 [Review] 
I give it 3 stars solely because it is a unique primary source about WikiLeaks; if this was not from a principal player, it would not be worth reading as it is shallow incomplete garbage. Negatives: the writing is absolutely atrocious, although I don’t know if this is due to the translation from the German or whether the co-author journalist screwed it all up. And Domscheit comes off in some passages as too ignorant to even understand Assange’s beliefs (for example, I seem to recall that there was an irritating passage where Domscheit mocks Assange’s use of red light to help his sleep - even though this is standard chronobiology, that blue light influences melatonin secretion to retard the sleep cycle and keep one awake!). One is strongly reminded of Russell’s famous description of Xenophon’s writings on Socrates: “A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says is never accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something that he can understand. I would rather be reported by my bitterest enemy among philosophers than by a friend innocent of philosophy.” Which is not to say that Domscheit’s portrait of Assange as a megalomaniac asshole is wrong, because from all the other coverage of him, it’s clear there’s a lot of truth to this portrayal. Domscheit’s personal failings are only highlighted by the since-complete & unmitigated failure of his ‘OpenLeaks’ project. It’s also bizarrely lacking in technical details, which is the one part one would hope a supposed geek like Domscheit would at least make sure his book got right! (Probably also thanks to the journalist.) Still, many interesting bits. I remember thinking way back that for a group claiming so many participants & advisers, it had an oddly low flow of leaks - which Domscheit says was because it was mostly him and Assange; makes sense. I was amused to learn that the Iceland laws were based by Assange in part on Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon - again, makes sense in a curious way.
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