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
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.
In practice
In a speech on modern work, one might quote Packer to illustrate the challenges of understanding labor in a digital age.
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.
Ideology 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Drones overall will be more impactful than I think people recognize, in positive ways to help society.
By 2029, computers will have emotional intelligence and be convincing as people.
I don't subscribe to the view some people have in the industry that you should purposefully design products that do not last that long. I don't think it is good for anyone.
I have always felt it is my destiny to build a machine that would allow man to fly.
I just believed. I believed that the technology would change people's lives. I believed putting real identity online - putting technology behind real identity - was the missing link.
As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.
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