Jaron LanierBooks are really, really hard to write. They represent a kind of a summit of grappling with what one really has to say371ReadingTime
Jaron LanierA remarkable thing about the Silicon Valley culture is that its status structure is so based on technical accomplishment and prowess.352Politics
Jaron LanierI think most of the dramatic new ideas come from little companies that then grow big. ✨ The Innovation Question. Interview with Margaret Warner, www.pbs.org. June 8, 2000.332Thought
Jaron LanierPeople try to treat technology as an object, and it can't be. It can only be a channel. ✨ Interview with Corey S. Powell, www.scientificamerican.com. September 15, 1996.355Humanity
Jaron LanierEmphasizing the crowd means de-emphasizing individual humans in the design of society, and when you ask people not to be people, they revert to bad, mob-like behaviors. ✨ Ja… ▶323Humanity
Jaron LanierWe already knew that kids learned computer technology more easily than adults, It is as if children were waiting all these centuries for someone to invent their native language.335Reading
Jaron LanierPop culture has entered into a nostalgic malaise. Online culture is dominated by trivial mashups of the culture that existed before the onset of mashups, and by fandom responding … ▶368Love
Jaron LanierAnonymous blog comments, vapid video pranks and lightweight mash-ups may seem trivial and harmless, but as a whole, this widespread practice of fragmentary, impersonal communicati… ▶357Reading
Jaron LanierAdvertisers are not thinking radically enough - they look for technology to lead instead of trying the neuroscience approach and thinking about what parts of the brain haven't bee… ▶302LifeThought
Jaron LanierAmerica's Facebook generation shows a submission to standardization that I haven't seen before. The American adventure has always been about people forgetting their former selves … ▶291HumanityReading
Jaron LanierCriticism is always easier than constructive solutions. ✨ My bright idea: Jaron Lanier. Interview with Aleks Krotoski, www.theguardian.com. February 20, 2010.357HopeThought
Jaron LanierSpirituality is committing suicide. Consciousness is attempting to will itself out of existence. ✨ Jaron Lanier (2010). You Are Not a Gadget, p.20, Vintage336Life
Jaron LanierFacebook says, 'Privacy is theft,' because they're selling your lack of privacy to the advertisers who might show up one day.3710Reading
Jaron LanierA digital sound sample in angry rap doesn't correspond to the graffiti but the wall. ✨ Jaron Lanier (2010). You Are Not A Gadget: A Manifesto, p.136, Penguin UK271Reflection
Jaron LanierAdvertisers and marketers should be looking to bring new experiences to different parts of the brain. It's a more profound idea than just dropping a billboard into a video game.3610LifeThought
Jaron LanierAn economy where advertisers thrive while journalists and artists struggle, reflects the values of a society more interested in deception and manipulation than in truth and beauty338HumanityReflectionTruth
Jaron LanierEvery time we give a musician the advice to give away the music and sell the T-shirt, we're saying, Don't make your living in this more elevated way. Instead, reverse this social … ▶305HopeLifeThought
Jaron LanierCreate a website that expresses something about who you are that won't fit into the template available to you on a social networking site. ✨ Jaron Lanier (2010). You Are Not… ▶349Humor
Jaron LanierWhen you have a global mush, people lose their identity, they become pseudonyms, they have no investment and no consequence in what they do. ✨ My bright idea: Jaron Lanier. … ▶294HopeHumanityThought
Jaron LanierIndividual web pages as they first appeared in the early 1990s had the flavour of person-hood. MySpace preserved some of that flavour, though a process of regularized formatting h… ▶3510HumanityPoliticsReading
Jaron LanierA real friendship ought to introduce each person to unexpected weirdness in the other. ✨ Jaron Lanier (2010). You Are Not a Gadget, p.53, Vintage339Life
Jaron LanierA fashionable idea in technical circles is that quantity not only turns into quality at some extreme of scale, but also does so according to principles we already understand. Some… ▶252PhilosophyReadingThought
Jaron LanierSeparation anxiety is assuaged by constant connection. Young people announce every detail of their lives on services like Twitter not to show off, but to avoid the closed door at … ▶263HumanityThoughtTime
Jaron LanierOur willingness to suffer for the sake of the perception of freedom is remarkable.329Philosophy
Jaron LanierGovernments oppress people, but so do mobs. You need to avoid both to make progress. ✨ On Digital Power And Its Discontents, www.edge.org.263HumanityPolitics
Jaron LanierIf you listen first, and write later, then what you write will have had time to filter through your brain and you'll be in what you say. This is what makes you exist. If you are o… ▶319ReflectionThoughtTime
Jaron LanierI'm not in any sense anti-Facebook. ✨ Should Facebook's Users Share Its Riches?. All Things Considered with Melissa Block, www.npr.org. February 15, 2012.231ReadingReflection
Jaron LanierIf you're old enough to have a job and to have a life, you use Facebook exactly as advertised, you look up old friends.253LifeReading
Jaron LanierThe interesting thing about advertising is that the things that annoy us sometimes about it are really human. It's us looking at ourselves - and like all human endeavors it's impe… ▶298HumanityTime
Jaron LanierWriting and thinking is not economically sustainable.255Thought
