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We like to hack things, to take them apart to understand how they work, recombine their elements, improve them and add new ones, some of which we've built from scratch. We hack all kinds of things--computers, cars, food, networks, governments, music and so on. We hack some things that we don't own (like open-source software) and many things we do. Once we buy something we consider it ours to hack, and we don't need or seek anyone's permission to do so. Nobody can dictate where, how or what we hack, particularly when we're not breaking any laws. Our work is profoundly beneficial; it's a big source of creative destruction in the economy and society. We turn out innovations much better and faster than big sleepy incumbents do, and we also keep them on their feet. They might not like us, but they can't stop us; we'll either hack their wares or turn out better ones. So we don't need to play nice with them, and don't have any interest in doing so. Entities that welcome us are, in the not-too-long-run, going to outperform those that don't, because we bring so much energy and generate so much innovation.

Google is working on a social service to rival Facebook, if Web rumors are to be believed. And while Google's social-networking efforts have so far fallen flat, even satisfied Facebook users should hope that the search engine's efforts bear fruit.