Here are a few of my thoughts about the internets. I am titling this section Core Principles. Why? Because it’s so easy to get bogged down in the deets. I need an evolving reminder of where I stand on the “big questions”. So far I have come up with 5 6, but I’m sure I’ll add more. And yes, they are in order of importance.
#1: Creativity, Privacy and Re-Invention:
From the July 5, 1993 issue of the New Yorker.
#2. Self-Expression
“The internet is all about people expressing themselves on pages they own and control.”
- Fred Wilson, via avc.com - full post here
#3. The Intersection Between the Digital and Physical
“The best internet applications are the ones that help to augment your offline existence.”
- Nathaniel Whittemore, founder of assetmap.com and social entrepreneurship badass
#4. End-User Innovation
“Users that innovate can develop exactly what they want, rather than relying on manufacturers to act as their (often very imperfect) agents. Moreover, individual users do not have to develop everything they need on
their own: they can benefit from innovations developed and freely shared by others.”
- MIT Prof. Eric von Hippel, from Democratizing Innovation (2005) - full copy available here
#5. Technological Determinism
“Changes in technology exert a greater influence on societies and their processes than any other factor.”
- Merritt Roe Smith, from Does Technology Drive History? The Dilemma of Technical Determinism (1995) - preview available here
#6. Fanaticism
“Better to make a few users love you than a lot ambivalent”
- Paul Graham, from “Startups in 13 Sentences” - available here
