Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky
Clay Shirkyis an American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
CountryUnited States of America
Clay Shirky quotes about
moving past egalitarianism
Egalitarianism is possible only in small social systems. Once a medium gets past a certain size fame is a forced move.
jobs mean going-away
Publishing is not evolving. Publishing is going away. Because the word "publishing" means a cadre of professionals who are taking on the incredible difficulty and complexity and expense of making something public. That's not a job anymore. That's a button. There's a button that says "publish," and when you press it, it's done.
wish tools groups
To have a discussion about the plusses and minuses of various forms of group action, though, is going to require discussing the current tools and services as they exist, rather than discussing their caricatures or simply wishing that they would disappear.
lying together-we-can environmental
There is no larger collective-action problem than the environment. The three biggest lies of the environmental movement is that every little bit helps, you can do your part, and together we can do it.
revolution ifs predictable
If it’s a revolution it can’t be predictable. And if it’s predictable it can’t be a revolution.
media goal quality
The great tension in media has always been that freedom and quality are conflicting goals.
interesting tools
Tools get socially interesting after they're no longer technologically interesting.
years erotic sacred
Even with the sacred printing press, we got erotic novels 150 years before we got scientific journals.
thinking gym-rats facts
Multi-taskers often think they are like gym rats, bulking up their ability to juggle tasks, when in fact they are like alcoholics, degrading their abilities through over-consumption.
writing needs three-things
There are three things you need to be a good writer: you need to read a lot, you need to write a lot, and you need a lot of feedback.
principles problem dedicated
The Shirky Principle declares that complex solutions, like a company, or an industry, can become so dedicated to the problem they are the solution to, that often they inadvertently perpetuate the problem.
real technology people
Prior to the internet, the last technology that had any real effect on the way people sat down and talked together was the table
information filters information-overload
There's no such thing as information overload-only filter failure.
mean media ideas
The more ideas there are in circulation, the more ideas there are for any individual to disagree with. More media always means more arguing.