The Shirkey Principle (or Why You’re Not Just the Solution but the Problem)
Two people whose brains are bigger than planets and will help you understand the shifting forces of our society today.
1. Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired Magazine and author of a number of excellent blogs, not least The Technium and Cool Tools.
2. Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
So when Kevin quotes Clay, you know something exciting is going on. Here it is:
“Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.”
~ Clay Shirky
I’m still having this rattle around my brain to figure out the full implications. It’s connected to my belief that Great Work is a fundamentally counter-cultural act. But it goes deeper than that. It means that to do Great Work, you may need to rediscover and rearticulate the challenge your trying to solve.
Perhaps.
What do you think?
You can listen to my Great Work Interview with Clay here.
Great Work Quote #40: “It is what people talk about when we are gone…”
“This freely chosen aspect of ourselves is what other people remember about us. How we handle life’s cascade of real choices within the larger cages of our birth and background is what makes us who we are. It is what people talk about when we are gone. Not the givens. But the choices we took.”
~ Kevin Kelly, The Technium and here
Anyone who reads this blog knows I’m a fan of Kevin Kelly.
Here’s his deft summation of the battle between Nature and Nurture – and the role of choice in all of that.
What are you choices? How are you choosing to do more Great Work?
The Friday Grab Bag: Three others’ posts to read (July 3)
This week it’s a celebration of the genius that is Kevin Kelly. My goodness, this man knows how to write and knows how to write provocative, smart, thoughtful stuff. Perfect reading for those of us on a long weekend…
1. What’s your death clock read?
Just posted today, and already a classic. You can set up your own countdown to when you die… (it’s not a gruesome as you’d think)
2. Upcreation
How does complexity happen? How doe things keep upgrading so the simple building blocks become the marvellous, complex universe in which we live? Not a fast read, but a deep one.
3. The arc of complexity
This article follows on nicely from “upcreation”. Read the two of them together. Then go: Wow.
The Friday Grab Bag: Three others’ posts to read (June 5th)
Three posts I enjoyed this week, all speaking to a different aspect of doing more Great Work.
1. Who are your true fans?
Kevin Kelly stretches my brain with startling regularlity. This post is all about the power of collecting just 1000 true fans.
2. Darwin’s OTHER big idea
Kaizen Training are a UK outfit that put out a regular and excellent newsletter for anyone thinking about change in organization. This article gives a big clue to why Darwin’s big idea caught on – and provides an excellent strategy for anyone trying to get anything done.
3. IKEA’s cutting edges
IKEA is a company I admire a great deal. I like their furniture – or at least some of it – and I really admire their approach to business. Here’s what they’re up to right now.
10 ideas changing the world
Kevin Kellly’s (as per usual excellent) blog pointed me to this article in Time magazine – which will certainly get you making new connections about what’s next – for you, for your country and for the world.
Here’s the list:
Which of these piques your interest?
Personally, the one that’s got me thinking most is amortality. Not because I really want to live forever (try reading Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels for a cautionary tale on that one), but because I think it’s getting harder and harder to say: “I’m too old for that.”
