A fascinating exposé in the NYT (requires registration) by Michael “Liar’s Poker” Lewis of a 15-year-old who masqueraded as a legal expert on askme.com. It’s rather lengthy – the “good stuff” starts about a third of the way through.
Here is one of the bizarre exchanges from the article:
“Where do you find books about the law?” I asked.
“I don’t,” he said, tap-tap-tapping away on his keyboard. “Books are boring. I don’t like reading.”
So you go on legal Web sites?”
“No.”
“Well, when you got one of these questions did you research your answer?”
“No, never. I just know it.”
“You just know it.”
“Exactly.”
!!!
And this guy ended up the most popular legal expert on AskMe… even after it was revealed who he was!
Does that say something about people’s tendency to correlate good service with good products? The democratising power of the Internet? Or does it just call into question the value of lawyers?
