Any system described by a power law [...] has several curious effects. The first is that, by definition, most participants are below average. Clay Shirky More Quotes by Clay Shirky More Quotes From Clay Shirky Time Warner has called and they want us all back on the couch, just consuming - not producing, not sharing - and we should say, 'No.' Clay Shirky technologymotivationinspiration We systematically overestimate the value of access to information and underestimate the value of access to each other. Clay Shirky accessunderestimateinformation Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution. Clay Shirky innovationcreativitycreative A revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new tools. It happens when society adopts new behaviors Clay Shirky revolutionbehaviortools The change we are in the middle of isn't minor and it isn't optional. Clay Shirky optionalminorsmiddle Unlike sharing, where the group is mainly an aggregate of participants, cooperating creates group identity. Clay Shirky participantsgroupsidentity It is the people who figure out how to work simply in the present, rather than the people who mastered the complexities of the past, who get to say what happens in the future. Clay Shirky digital-marketingpeoplepast When we change the way we communicate, we change society. Clay Shirky communicateway So forget about blogs and bloggers and blogging and focus on this - the cost and difficulty of publishing absolutely anything, by anyone, into a global medium, just got a whole lot lower. And the effects of that increased pool of potential producers is going to be vast. Clay Shirky thoughtfulfocusfunny Our social tools are not an improvement to modern society, they are a challenge to it. Clay Shirky improvementtoolschallenges It did not take long after the rise of the commercial printing press before someone figured out that erotic novels were a good idea. ... It took people another 150 years to even think of the scientific journal. Clay Shirky motivationinspirationthinking Communications tools don't get socially interesting until they get technologically boring. Clay Shirky communicationtechnologyinteresting [C]ollaborative production is simple: no one person can take credit for what gets created, and the project could not come into being without the participation of many. Clay Shirky projectscreditsimple Publishing isn't a job anymore. It's a button. Clay Shirky publishingbuttonsjobs If someone around you is multitasking, you pick up distraction like second-hand smoke. Clay Shirky multitaskingdistractionhands The more ideas there are in circulation, the more ideas there are for any individual to disagree with. More media always means more arguing. Clay Shirky mediameanideas There's no such thing as information overload-only filter failure. Clay Shirky information-overloadfiltersinformation It’s not information overload. It’s filter failure. Clay Shirky learningtechnologyknowledge Human beings are social creatures - not occasionally or by accident but always. Sociability is one of our lives as both cause and effect. Clay Shirky cause-and-effectcausessocial Prior to the internet, the last technology that had any real effect on the way people sat down and talked together was the table Clay Shirky technologyrealpeople
