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In big industry new ideas are invited to rear their heads so they can be clobbered at once. The idea department of a big firm is a sort of lab for isolating dangerous viruses.
Marshall Mcluhan
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes how new ideas in large industries are often quickly criticized or rejected, likening the process to eliminating harmful threats.

Marshall McLuhan's quote highlights the tendency of big industries to be resistant to innovation. He compares the management of ideas within these companies to a laboratory where potentially harmful concepts are quickly identified and suppressed, suggesting that the fear of change can stifle creativity and progress. This perspective warns about the dangers of environments that do not foster new thinking and the societal implications of such practices.

Themes

InnovationIndustryIdeasResistanceCreativity

In practice

Example use cases

In a business meeting discussing the importance of fostering creativity, one might say, 'As McLuhan noted, new ideas in big industry are often clobbered at once.'

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We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us.
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