Why are online games so addictive? It's mostly the narcotic appeal of 'leveling.' — Clive Thompson Addictive Copy Share Image
The Internet lets thousands of total strangers collaborate to produce a truly hivelike result. — Clive Thompson Collaborate Copy Share Image
No consumer product improves more drastically, year after year, than the computer. — Clive Thompson After Copy Share Image
We're dumber and less cognitively nimble if we're not around other people - and, now, other machines. — Clive Thompson Around Copy Share Image
America has always had tinkerers, including just about any teenager who ever hot-rodded a Camaro. — Clive Thompson About Copy Share Image
Type as quickly as you can and always carry a pencil. — Clive Thompson Inspirational Copy Share Image
Memory has always been social. Now we're using search engines and computers to augment our memories, too. — Clive Thompson Computer Copy Share Image
The amount of writing that people do online is astonishing, and historically unprecedented. — Clive Thompson Amount Copy Share Image
The genius idea of industrialism was the concept of the Model T: In exchange for something cheap and well-made, we'd forgo unique,… — Clive Thompson Cheap Copy Share Image
Railing at scientists for massaging tree-ring statistics won't stop the globe from warming if the globe is actually, you know, warming. — Clive Thompson Actually Copy Share Image
As Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman document in their book Networked, people who are heavily socially active online tend to be also… — Clive Thompson Active Copy Share Image
There's nothing wrong with talking out loud in public, but there is something wrong with the government sucking up all those utter… — Clive Thompson Bust Copy Share Image
Insurance firms have always carefully studied real-world data to figure out what, precisely, constitutes a risky activity. — Clive Thompson Activity Copy Share Image
Truly huge artistic collaboration on the Internet seems to work only if the gang has a well-defined objective. — Clive Thompson Art Copy Share Image
More than any other modern tool, computers are a total mystery to their users. Most people never open them up to fix… — Clive Thompson Any Copy Share Image
I lust after iPods or Mini Coopers not because they're unique, but because they've been so artfully made that I couldn't imagine… — Clive Thompson After Copy Share Image
Personally, I'd love to see more social media firms develop business models that aren't reliant on advertising. If you're a social media… — Clive Thompson Ads Copy Share Image
Ambient awareness is the experience of knowing what's going on in the lives of other people - what they're thinking about, what… — Clive Thompson Able Copy Share Image
I don't think the Internet has replaced cities in any significant way, nor really could it. Cities are dynamic - and deeply… — Clive Thompson Any Copy Share Image
Ambient awareness is the experience of knowing what's going on in the lives of other people - what they're thinking about, what… — Clive Thompson About Copy Share Image
If you, or any public-spirited programmer, wanted to figure out what the software on your machine is really doing, tough luck. It's… — Clive Thompson Any Copy Share Image
“While reading Kasparov’s book How Life Imitates Chess on my Kindle, I idly clicked on “popular highlights” to see what passages other… — Clive Thompson Books Copy Share Image
“Microsoft is still living down its disastrous introduction of Clippy, a ghastly piece of artificial intelligence - I'm using that term very… — Clive Thompson Artificial intelligence Copy Share Image
That's the old ecological tale that explains humans' inability to fully appreciate global warming. To wit: if you drop a frog in… — Clive Thompson Animal Copy Share Image
When you broadcast your book reading voluntarily, it creates moments of fascinating serendipity. — Clive Thompson Book Copy Share Image
Plays are frequently infected with ideas that came from actors or even sound engineers. Some Shakespeare scholars wonder whether some of the… — Clive Thompson Actor Copy Share Image
A textbook requires a consistent sense of style and a linear structure, hallmarks of a single authorial presence. An encyclopedia doesn't. — Clive Thompson Consistent Copy Share Image
The one complaint about the Internet that I wholeheartedly endorse is that most of these tools have been designed to peck at… — Clive Thompson About Copy Share Image
There is something about the ability to externalize our thoughts and compare them with other people in a public way that is… — Clive Thompson Ability Copy Share Image
Software is now so complex - requiring so many gazillions of tiny files all over your computer - that most consumers don't… — Clive Thompson Bother Copy Share Image
A huge amount of our everyday thinking - powerful, creative, and resonant stuff - is done socially: talking to other people, arguing… — Clive Thompson Amount Copy Share Image
The computer industry began with home-brew boxes that everyone had to program for themselves, but that was a huge hassle. The computer… — Clive Thompson Arrived Copy Share Image
The things kids can do on screens can be really delightful - if they are age appropriate. But no, they shouldn't spend… — Clive Thompson Age Copy Share Image
The main message of 'Smarter Than You Think' is an attempt to look at the productively new and interesting ways that we… — Clive Thompson About Copy Share Image
Novelists in particular love to rhapsodize about the glory of the solitary mind; this is natural, because their job requires them to… — Clive Thompson About Copy Share Image
The humanitarian developers behind World of Warcraft have also discovered a way to bribe gamers into turning off their computers and going… — Clive Thompson Also Copy Share Image
The only reason we don't notice how absolutely interwoven our thinking processes have become with older technologies - pencils, paper, electric light,… — Clive Thompson Absolutely Copy Share Image
The people who tend to get the most out of being social thinkers are the people who themselves are helpful. They're always… — Clive Thompson Always Copy Share Image
We use paper documents to store knowledge so we can consult and reconsult it, giving us a type of recall impossible with… — Clive Thompson Consult Copy Share Image
Tip-of-the-tongue syndrome is when people almost remember something but need a computer, or someone else, to help them find it. The problem… — Clive Thompson Almost Copy Share Image
