The Debt Ceiling is a pretty complicated problem.  Yeah, yeah – it probably doesn’t seem that complicated to you.  Most everyone thinks the debt ceiling is a simple problem with a simple solution.

Democrats think the solution is to raise the debt ceiling now and worry about the deficit later.  They will, by and large, acknowledge that the debt is a problem in the long term, but they will insist that, in the short term, the most important thing to do is to raise the debt ceiling and continue deficit spending to stimulate the weak economy.

Establishment Republicans think the solution is to raise the debt ceiling to avoid default and to simultaneously cut spending significantly.  They will, by and large, acknowledge that reducing government spending may have some negative impacts on economic growth, but will insist that the most important thing to do is get the deficit and by extension the debt under control.

The Tea Party think the solution is to refuse to raise the debt ceiling, claiming that such a scenario would still permit the US to pay entitlements but would force by necessity major cuts in discretionary spending.

The problem is not so much that there are three competing positions, but that each group thinks the other two are acting in bad faith.

To the Democrats, the Establishment Republicans are trying to increase their election opportunities by slowing economic growth until 2012 and are either wagging or being wagged by the extreme Tea Party wing that’s hell-bent on cutting off its nose to spite the financial health of the union.  And of course, it’s all because they hate Obama.  And they’re probably all racist too.

To the Establishment Republicans, the Democrats are trying to continue the same reckless spending in order to keep its constituent special interest groups happy, and are more concerned about re-election in 2012 than the long-term fiscal well-being of the country.  Obama’s just trying to get re-elected, is over his head when it comes to economic policy, and the entire lot of them just think the Republicans are a bunch of racist hicks.  Meanwhile, the Tea Party is overplaying its hand, trying to co-opt the entire party at the expense of actually getting helpful policy concessions.  Oh, and they actually are the racist hicks that the Democrats accuse the Establishment Republicans of being.

And of course, to the Tea Party, the Democrats and the Republicans are merely two sides of the same big-government coin, more interested in continuing spending and perpetuating their hold on power rather than actually rooting out the problem.  Both sides revere the same economists who failed to warn us about the subprime mortgage market, neither side respects the will of the people, and they’re all a bunch of Beltway-ingrained fat cats that think that the other 90% of the country is a bunch of racist hicks.

I think it would be helpful for the political process and the fiscal health of the nation if we all assumed that everyone was arguing and negotiating in good faith, rather than in bad.

Vincent Wong (@fttechfounder) put together a slideshow on Google+ (in both senses of the world) entitled “What G+ is really about (psst!!! it’s not social)”

Wong makes a great point – that the new Google+ toolbar means that soon all the Google services (docs, maps, etc) will probably be shared via the Google+ social network.  And he (correctly, in my mind) assess that this will create headaches for Microsoft and Apple.

However, I don’t think Wong is right when he says that Facebook and twitter don’t have to worry.  Wong cites, through the course of his presentation, basically one reason why Facebook and twitter are safe: size.  It’s not a bad point – Facebook has 750 million users.  If you read a name a second on Facebook you wouldn’t get done reading for 24 years.

Of Stickiness and the Color of Oceans

The only thing keeping people on Facebook is the network – and as anyone who uses Facebook knows – your network, while comprised of hundreds of friends – is really centered around 10 or so of your close friends (“strong ties” in the parlance of psych research) who you interact with on a daily or weekly basis.  Everyone else is kind of floating out in the Land of Wishing you a Happy Birthday and Not Much Else*. 

* it’s a sad, sad Kingdom -  pretty much the opposite of Disney World

That’s why the Invite mechanic of Google+ has been so potent: when a person goes to Google+, they bring their closest friends with them via exclusive, shiny invites.  Even if only half your close friends come with you, that pretty much fragments Facebook’s user base.  In the interim, people will be checking both Facebook and Google+ (as I currently do), but in the long-run, people who use Gmail, write on Google Docs, get directions from Google Maps, and read Google News (not to mention search the web via Google) will constantly be reminded of their Google+ presence rather than their Facebook presence.  My guess: Chrome integration is on the way, and soon.

What does this mean?  Wong could still be right – headaches for Facebook and twitter could just be side-effects of Google+’s real aim.  He claims Google is employing a “Blue Ocean Strategy” (odds that MBA’s everywhere just got really excited: 90%) which is basically a short way of saying that Google+ is trying to create a new product space instead of competing against established players in the old “Red Ocean”* space.

* Red, because competition turns the oceans bloody.  Bloody! Blue Oceans are clear sailing and open waters! As long as we’re going with the metaphor, ‘I’d say that Roger Godell and David Stern are currently employing Brown Ocean strategies w.r.t their respective leagues.

It IS Facebook vs Google+

But really, do we need two Identity Platforms – two places to check what our friends have to say and to see pictures of their nephews and daughters and cats?  Of course not – Google knows that Facebook and Google+ are in competition.  Everything about their Circles product is phrased as “and this is NOT like X” (where X is something that Facebook does).  Facebook certainly knows it.

But Facebook and Google+ are radically different in the way in which they are social.  Dhanji Prasanna, an ex-Google+ team member, notes that the core complaints that Google+ was designed to address (outlined in Google UX researcher Paul Adam’s excellent slideshow “The Real Life Social Network”) were misunderstood by Facebook.

Prasanna writes: “I had originally assumed that he meant facebook would lack the agility to make the necessary technical changes, so central to their system. But I was wrong–the real point was that they would not be willing to change direction so fundamentally. And given such a large, captivated audience you could hardly blame them.”

The executive summary of what Adams says: Online social networks do not let people differentiate between groups of connections and share different content with them.  To the contrary, Facebook saturates the user with too much content and puts too much of the onus on a user to censor themselves and think deeply about repercussions every time he or she shares content.

It’s all true – and Google+’s circles are a step to combat this problem.  But I think the real killer feature of Google+ is actually, ironically, a subtraction rather than an addition.  Wait for it:

And the Wall Came Tumbling Down

It’s the lack of the wall.  When you move from Facebook to Google+, you can no longer write on someone’s profile.  There’s just no way to do it.  You can’t wish them a happy birthday on their wall.  You can’t share a cool link on their wall.  You can’t post a picture on their wall.  You can’t even say “hey, what’s up” on their wall.  The reason: letting someone else write on your profile gives them control over what people who look at your profile see.  It fundamentally doesn’t make sense to anyone who might be judged on the content of their online profile.

You can still “share” content with someone in a manner similar to twitter – you tag them in a post.  But like Twitter, no one else who simply looks at your profile can see messages sent to you.  You are in complete control of what people who see your profile see.   Newt Gingrich can stop being worried about what a crazy extremist fan or opponent of his will post on his profile – because now, when someone goes to Gingrich’s Google+ page, they don’t see what his rabid fans and rabid enemies think* – they see what he thinks.

* Because honestly, who else posts on a politician’s public Facebook page besides the crazies?

I’ve always hated Facebook’s Wall.  I’ve never understood why people post “hey, we haven’t talked in a while – hit me up” on my wall instead of sending an email.  Everyone needs to wish everyone else a Happy Birthday publicly for the entire world to see, but it’s the most superficial form of communication possible – nothing of substance or personal value can be said, and there is little to no obligation to actually respond.  The Facebook Wall acts mostly as a form of social proof (more psych jargon!) whereby people see that you’re cool enough to have other people talk to you (or uncool enough that no one writes on your wall!).  People are eager to see if someone wrote on their wall not because they want to be communicated with, but because it makes them look good if other people see that they are being communicated with.

So to recap – the lack of the wall gives Google+ three advantages: First, it lets you control the content of your own profile to maintain professionalism and control your own image.  Second, it kills farcical conversations that are aired in public for inexplicable reasons and thus encourages real dialogue via email or chat.  Third, it turns a social network from an exercise in social gamesmanship into a place you can go to communicate in groups.  That’s why, in my mind, the lack of a wall is Google+’s killer feature.