The change we are in the middle of isn't minor and it isn't optional. — Clay Shirky Change Copy Share Image
The future presented by the internet is the mass amateurization of publishing and a switch from 'Why publish this?' to 'Why not? — Clay Shirky Internet Copy Share Image
The waterfall method amounts to a pledge by all parties not to learn anything while doing the actual work. — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
It used to be expensive to make things public and cheap to make them private. Now it's expensive to make things private… — Clay Shirky Computer Copy Share Image
What you need for a participatory system to work: "a plausible promise, an effective tool, and an acceptable bargain." — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
You used to have to own a radio tower or television tower or printing press. Now all you have to have is… — Clay Shirky Access Copy Share Image
Any system described by a power law [...] has several curious effects. The first is that, by definition, most participants are below average. — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
Carpooling is important for urban density, air pollution and other reasons, but carpooling is not the kind of thing that actually changes… — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
“Tragedy of the Commons: while each person can agree that all would benefit from common restraint, the incentives of the individuals are… — Clay Shirky Organization Copy Share Image
The historic role of the consumer has been nothing more than a giant maw at the end of the mass media's long… — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
“[B]ecause the minimum costs of being an organization in the first place are relatively high, certain activities may have some value but… — Clay Shirky First place Copy Share Image
There is a giant gulf between doing something and doing nothing. And someone who makes a lolcat and uploads it - even… — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
Communications tools don't get socially interesting until they get technologically boring... It's when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so… — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
Facebook is not very good at dealing with named groups; they're not very good at saying, 'We've got this book club and… — Clay Shirky Action Copy Share Image
I certainly never intended for myself an academic career and, were the academy to suffer, I'd just go do something else. I… — Clay Shirky Academic Copy Share Image
Wikipedia took the idea of peer review and applied it to volunteers on a global scale, becoming the most important English reference… — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
The tools that a society uses to create and maintain itself are as central to human life as a hive is to… — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
A firm is successful when the costs of directing employee effort are lower than the potential gain from directing. — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
Whether it's long-form journalism or investigative journalism, it's no fun to just be the guy diagnosing the problem. — Clay Shirky Fun Copy Share Image
There are three things you need to be a good writer: you need to read a lot, you need to write a… — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
I removed 'cyberspace' from my vernacular. The idea, which I grew up with, of going into a place separate from the real… — Clay Shirky Cyberspace Copy Share Image
Wikipedia is forcing people to accept the stone-cold bummer that knowledge is produced and constructed by argument rather than by divine inspiration. — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
It is our misfortune, as a historical generation, to live through the largest expansion in expressive capability in human history, a misfortune… — Clay Shirky Abundance Copy Share Image
We systematically overestimate the value of access to information and underestimate the value of access to each other. — Clay Shirky Access Copy Share Image
“We’re collectively living through 1500, when it’s easier to see what’s broken than what will replace it.” — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
“Because Wikipedia is a process, not a product, it replaces guarantees offered by institutions with probabilities supported by process.” — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
“Until recently, 'the news' has meant to different things - events that are newsworthy, and events covered by the press.” — Clay Shirky Journalism Copy Share Image
It is possible to think that the Internet will be a net positive for society while admitting that there are significant downsides… — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
It is the people who figure out how to work simply in the present, rather than the people who mastered the complexities… — Clay Shirky Complexity Copy Share Image
“[F]or any group determined to maintain a set of communal standards some mechanism of enforcement must exist.” — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
Multi-taskers often think they are like gym rats, bulking up their ability to juggle tasks, when in fact they are like alcoholics,… — Clay Shirky Ability Copy Share Image
Trying to express implicit and fuzzy relationships in ways that are explicit and sharp doesn't clarify the meaning, it destroys it. — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
Civic participants don't aim to make life better merely for members of the group. They want to improve even the lives of… — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
“[F]rom now on, the act of creating and circulating evidence of wrongdoing to more than a few people, even if they all… — Clay Shirky Internet Copy Share Image
“Revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new technologies—it happens when society adopts new behaviors.” — Clay Shirky Habits Copy Share Image
“The Dean campaign had accidentally created a movement for a passionate few rather than a vote-getting operation.” — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
Unlike sharing, where the group is mainly an aggregate of participants, cooperating creates group identity. — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
“[R]elying on nonfinancial motivations may actually make systems more tolerant of variable participation.” — Clay Shirky Motivation Copy Share Image
The threat [of the U.S. bills SOPA and PIPA] is the inversion of the burden of proof, where we suddenly are all… — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
Prior to the internet, the last technology that had any real effect on the way people sat down and talked together was… — Clay Shirky Copy Share Image
![“Any system described by a power law [...] has several curious effects. The first is that, by definition, most participants are below average.” quote by Clay Shirky](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/135/clay-shirky-3364_average_any-system-described-by-a-power-law-has_778085.jpg)
![“[B]ecause the minimum costs of being an organization in the first place are relatively high, certain activities may have some value but not enough to make them worth pursuing in any organized way. New social tools are altering this equation by lowering the costs of coordinating group action.” quote by Clay Shirky](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/a6d/clay-shirky-3364_first-place_b-ecause-the-minimum-costs-of-being-an-o_874307.png)
![“[F]or any group determined to maintain a set of communal standards some mechanism of enforcement must exist.” quote by Clay Shirky](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/d05/clay-shirky-3364_enforcement_f-or-any-group-determined-to-maintain-a_1570598.png)
![“[F]rom now on, the act of creating and circulating evidence of wrongdoing to more than a few people, even if they all work together, will be seen as a delayed but public act.” quote by Clay Shirky](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/b8f/clay-shirky-3364_internet_f-rom-now-on-the-act-of-creating-and-cir_2973391.png)
![“[R]elying on nonfinancial motivations may actually make systems more tolerant of variable participation.” quote by Clay Shirky](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/42e/clay-shirky-3364_motivation_r-elying-on-nonfinancial-motivations-may_2718542.png)
![“The threat [of the U.S. bills SOPA and PIPA] is the inversion of the burden of proof, where we suddenly are all treated like thieves at every moment we're given the freedom to create, to produce or to share.” quote by Clay Shirky](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/572/clay-shirky-3364_bills_the-threat-of-the-u-s-bills-sopa-and-pip_439701.png)
