New Rules for the New Economy

Don't solve problems, pursue opportunities.

The problem with trying to measure productivity is that it measures only how well people can do the wrong jobs. Any job that can be measured for productivity probably should be eliminated from the list of jobs that people do.

The only factor becoming scarce in a world of abudance is human attention.

The network economy is founded on technology, but can only be built on relationships. It starts with chips and ends with trust.

Not every success needs to be abandoned drastically, but every success needs to be questioned drastically.

There can be no expertise in innovation unless there is also expertise in demolishing the ensconced.

If the system settles into harmony and equilibrium it will eventually stagnate and die.

Without some element of governance from the top, bottom-up control will freeze when options are many. Without some element of leadership, the many at the bottom will be paralysed with choices.

It takes a village to make a mall. Community precedes commerce.

Privacy is a type of conversation. Firms should view privacy not as some inconvenient obsession of customers that must be snuck around but more as a way to cultivate a genuine relationship.

The more interconnected a technology is, the more opportunities it spawns for both use and misuse.

Change comes in various wavelengths. There are changes in the game, changes in the rules of the game, and changes in how the rules are changed.

Technology has become our culture, our culture technology.

The dynamic of our society, and particularly our new economy, will increasingly obey the logic of networks. Understanding how networks work will be the key to understanding how the economy works.

The surest way to smartness is through massive dumbness.

Communication – which in the end is what the digital technology and media are all about – is not just a sector of the economy. Communication IS the economy.