Does the Internet Make You Smarter?(online.wsj.com)
online.wsj.com
Does the Internet Make You Smarter?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704025304575284973472694334.html
8 comments
I wish Shirkey would start comparing Wikipedia creation not to TV watching, but to the jobs that the people who write Wikipedia are (theoretically) doing while they're writing Wikipedia.
One could say the same thing about OSS, at least in the context of OSS which management does not know about.
If you think 10 hours of TV a week is a waste of human potential, you should see what some people do for 40 hours a week. (Or vastly, vastly more, in some cases. Why hello, Japanese salarymen...)
One could say the same thing about OSS, at least in the context of OSS which management does not know about.
If you think 10 hours of TV a week is a waste of human potential, you should see what some people do for 40 hours a week. (Or vastly, vastly more, in some cases. Why hello, Japanese salarymen...)
Much agreed. It was just as all the people who truly believed that google pacman contributed to millions of hours of lost productivity. Really?
In most cases, people at their jobs probably just substituted one "time waster" with another (whether it be job related or not.)
The people running around screaming how google pacman cost valuable time are probably the same ones who also idlely sit in far more costly pointless meetings all day long.
In most cases, people at their jobs probably just substituted one "time waster" with another (whether it be job related or not.)
The people running around screaming how google pacman cost valuable time are probably the same ones who also idlely sit in far more costly pointless meetings all day long.
There is definitely something to be said for taking a bit of time to truly have a negligible effect on anything of importance.
"The decade the pessimists want to return us to is the 1980s, the last period before society had any significant digital freedoms."
Who are these pessimists?
Who are these pessimists?
I'm guessing he's arguing against people like Nick Carr and Andrew Keen, who've gotten a great deal of press in prominent places. Certainly, Keen seems to have the point of view Shirky is describing. Carr is more nuanced, but still seems to be arguing for something pretty close to that point of view. These points of view are uncommon amongst hackers, they're quite common in other parts of society. Certainly, many journalists seem to want a return to the 1980s.
I also had the impression that he was arguing against people who may not exist in any significant number or position.
There is a video where Clay Shirky discusses a similar issue -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyoNHIl-QLQ (Part 1 of 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNCblGv0zjU (Part 2 of 2)
Link to the transcript of the video above and HN discussion
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=174410
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyoNHIl-QLQ (Part 1 of 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNCblGv0zjU (Part 2 of 2)
Link to the transcript of the video above and HN discussion
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=174410
That's a striking comparison. What really matters in people's lives is how they spend their free time, when they could be doing anything from something totally time-wasting to something incremental and productive. (I have just recently become a Wikipedian. I essentially never watch TV.)