Great post. I'll add that Philip Greenspun's article "The book behind the book" is also excellent: http://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/dead-trees/story.html. It affected my own life and decision making too: http://seliger.com/2011/03/06/why-youre-unlikely-to-see-seli....

Greespun wrote his piece in 1997 and updated it in 1999. Except for the growth of the second model, too little has changed.