What Clay Shirky thinks about simplicity
American writer on the social and economic effects of the internet, author of Here Comes Everybody (2008) and Cognitive Surplus (2010); has taught at New York University.
Clay Shirky did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Only Clay Shirky on simplicity. See everyone on simplicity
3 dated positions, 2010, in their own words. Our reading of what Clay Shirky has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsIn a bureaucracy, it’s easier to make a process more complex than to make it simpler, and easier to create a new burden than kill an old one.
↗The Collapse of Complex Business Modelsshirky.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsSome video still has to be complex to be valuable, but the logic of the old media ecoystem, where video had to be complex simply to be video, is broken.
↗The Collapse of Complex Business Modelsshirky.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Our readingWhen an ecosystem stops rewarding complexity, the people who work simply decide the future.
Their wordswhen the ecosystem stops rewarding complexity, it is the people who figure out how to work simply in the present, rather than the people who mastered the complexities of the past, who get to say what happens in the future.
↗The Collapse of Complex Business Modelsshirky.com 3rd of 3 in this piece