Everyone finds justification for his or her views in logic and analysis, but a personal philosophy often emerges from some archaic part of the mind, an early idea of how the world should be.
George PackerRead
With work increasingly invisible, it's much harder to grasp the human effects, the social contours, of the Internet economy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the challenges in understanding the social impacts of the Internet economy due to the often unseen nature of digital work.
George Packer's quote underscores the difficulty of comprehending the broader human and social implications of the Internet economy, especially as much of the labor involved goes unnoticed. As work becomes more digital and less tangible, it becomes challenging to evaluate how these changes shape societal relationships and individual experiences.
Themes
InternetEconomyWorkSocial ImpactInvisible Labor
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech on modern work, one might quote Packer to illustrate the challenges of understanding labor in a digital age.
More from George Packer
All quotes βIdeology knows the answer before the question has been asked. Principles are something different: a set of values that have to be adapted to circumstances but not compromised away.
George PackerRead
At the heart of the matter is a battle between wish and fear. Fear generally proves stronger than a wish, but it leaves a taste of disappointment on the tongue.
George PackerRead
As America has grown less economically equal, a citizen's ability to move upward has fallen behind that of citizens in other Western democracies. We are no longer the country where anyone can become anything.
George PackerRead
The invisibility of work and workers in the digital age is as consequential as the rise of the assembly line and, later, the service economy.
George PackerRead
Abstract sympathy with the working class as an economic entity is easy, but the feeling can vanish on contact with actual members of the group, who often arrive with disturbing beliefs and powerful resentments - who might not sound or look like people urban progressives want to know.
George PackerRead
Similar quotes
With the development of the Internet...we are in the middle of the most transforming technological event since the capture of fire. I used to think that it was just the biggest thing since Gutenberg, but now I think you have to go back farther.
John Perry BarlowRead
If you write a blog post, you've got something to say; you're not just creating words and synonyms. We'd like the computers to actually pick up on that semantic meaning.
Ray KurzweilRead
Even before smart phones and the Internet, we had many ways to distract our selves. Now that's compounded by a factor of trillions.
Jon Kabat-ZinnRead
I believe those that produce the least emissions in autos will also be those who have the greatest success worldwide.
Angela MerkelRead
Technology enabled Rappler's fast growth starting in 2012, but we were also among the first victims when social media was weaponized in 2016.
Maria RessaRead
I am hoping, though, that many of them have kids, who, when they have a moment to take a break from their iPods, Internet, or Google, will explain to their parents running the country just how the world is being flattened.
Thomas FriedmanRead