Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
Shirky’s Law and why (most) social software fails (michaelnielsen.org)
37 points by michael_nielsen on July 24, 2008 | hide | past | favorite | 4 comments



Another reason is that exponential growth on social networks works both ways.

One user who stops using a network decreases the value for everyone else, which makes other users more likely to stop, etc.


simple, useful, and original. It’s easy to come up with a task which is useful and original - just combine existing ideas in a new way, perhaps with some minor twists. But finding something that’s also simple is hard.

Interesting

a single task that can’t be reduced or explained in terms of existing tasks.

Simple things are often primitive (non-compound) in this way, but I doubt it's a requirement.


Who here thought shirky's was shrinky's for a second


I'm getting a little tired of this age old spin about how hackers can't make good and simple products.

They can and they do, look at all of YC...

Atleast hackers can push products out, biz people can't even do that!




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: