Out of Egypt:

changing my opinion about wikipedia

For a while, I strongly criticized Wikipedia for its inaccuracies, factionalization, instruction creep, mistrust of experts, and tolerance of anonymity/pseudonymity. Even more, I criticized Jimbo Wales for his messianism and his followers for their cult-like adoration of Wales and intolerance of any criticism of their project.

While I still believe WP has significant problems, I am willing to admit that, for many information-gathering purposes, it is good enough, and is a significant advance over what was generally available before the rise of the Web. Its flaws are least evident, it seems, in the sections on economics, law, mathematics, and computer science - specialized disciplines that are well-defined and which leave little room for debate. Thankfully, I already know a fair amount about the humanities from other sources, so WP's strengths and my weaknesses are well-matched.