We live in Public

We Live in Public: after making millions in the dot-com era, this doc shows the various projects of Josh Harris. As a person (from what we’re shown) there’s almost no adjectives that wouldn’t describe him: reckless genius, broke millionaire, short-sighted visionary, eccentric oddball, cold & loving – as a documentary subject, he’s dynamite. The businesses and experiments themselves (Jupiter Communications, Pseudo, Quiet, We Live in Public, Operator11…)  are fascinating & visionary, yet scarily insightful & prophetic. Quiet, in particular, is the ultimate/extreme version of the Stanford Prison Experiment – clearly inspiring the Big Brother TV franchise – it’s like a futuristic Sci-Fi tale, but it happened 13 years ago. The biggest thing Harris got right was the converging future of internet and televisions, which he started in 1993, and even today, it’s still not a mature market or service. The only downside is that, although it doesn’t completely worship Harris, it is clearly made by a friend, so you’re never really sure if he is genuinely that intelligent, or if he just threw thousands of ideas out there and a few of them stuck. We Live in Public is an engrossing documentary, if only because Josh Harris is such a fascinating person, with a remarkable story, and some freskishly accurate predictions.

Score: 8/10

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