167 Quotes by Clay Shirky

The Only Group That Can Categorize Everything Is Everybody

The simplest answer is that the user had access to reality—every company builds a bubble around itself, where the products get built and tested in a more controlled environment than they get used in. This is especially true of complex software. What the early users enabled Xiaomi to see was how MIUI actually worked when real (albeit unusually technically proficient) people tried to install it on a wide variety of devices.

A revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new tools. It happens when society adopts new behaviors

I would not hesitate to say I was addicted to the Internet in the first two years. It can be addictive, and things not taken in moderation have negative effects. But the alarmism around 'Facebook is changing our brains' strikes me as a kind of historical trick. Because we now know from brain science that everything changes our brains.

The change we are in the middle of isn't minor and it isn't optional.

Algorithms dont do a good job of detecting their own flaws.

Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution

Carpooling is important for urban density, air pollution and other reasons, but carpooling is not the kind of thing that actually changes the energy equation.

Time Warner has called and they want us all back on the couch, just consuming - not producing, not sharing - and we should say, 'No.'