167 Quotes by Clay Shirky

How we treat one another matters, and not just in a "it's nice to be nice" kind of way: our behavior contributes to an environment that encourages some opportunities and hinders others.

Personal value is the kind of value we receive from being active instead of passive, creative instead of consumptive.

The more people are involved in a given task, the more potential agreements need to be negotiated to do anything, and the greater the transaction costs.

[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.

Information sharing produces shared awareness among the participants, and collaborative production relies on shared creation, but collective action creates shared responsibility, by tying the user's identity to the identity of the group.

Tragedy of the Commons: while each person can agree that all would benefit from common restraint, the incentives of the individuals are arrayed against that outcome.

A firm is successful when the costs of directing employee effort are lower than the potential gain from directing.

Collaboration is not an absolute good.

Any system described by a power law [...] has several curious effects. The first is that, by definition, most participants are below average.