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Zach Klein's Blog: Conspicuous Production
Yancey Strickler posted an item yesterday about the wane of conspicuous consumption among wealthy people in Silicon Valley. But, as it turns out, conspicuousness hasn’t vanished. The post suggests that the Startup is the new conspicuous. Look at What I’ve Done.
The first comment on that…
“Conspicuous Production” is such a great phrase. It puts a name to a pattern of behaviour that both inspires and troubles me. I believe that there is a net benefit to people competing on what they do, rather than on what they have. Imagine a world where everyone is striving to make/build/develop/ship something that makes all our lives better/easier/safer. That sounds pretty awesome.
But I also worry that conspicuous production incentivizes busy work. Look at my photo sharing app/social network for college students/NGO. It’s all too easy to say “YES!” to the dopamine hit of yet another low-hanging fruit project, while more difficult challenges go unresolved because they don’t allow us to say “I made a thing!” within a very rapid timeline.
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quartey reblogged this from zachklein and added:
“Conspicuous Production”...pattern of behaviour that
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zackwolk said:
I would like to see Elepath or one of your startups create a redditesque system of aggregation pointedly edited to drive a common productively progressive focus. You all possess the influence already. I believe the buzz would be semi-automatic. I’ll leave the light on for…
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jacecooke said:
Really interested in this concept of ‘good data’ and what it might encompass. Is good data a facade? i.e. purposefully incomplete data, edited to only reflect well on us? Or is it data that through our awareness of it can make us better people?
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about data generation’s social implications
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zachklein posted this
Curious about cities, patterns, design, and marginalia. I use the word 'narrative' a lot. Emmanuel is Ghanaian, and a long way from home. Nice to meet you. (@equartey, Pinterest, email, ask)
tags: i made this, responses
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