February 16, 2010

work. Work. work. Work.

Dear Universe, I'd like a little less Capital-W and a little more little-w, please.
“(Capital-W) Work is what we have considered for years: your boss tells you to do something, you do it, and you get paid. By contrast, (little-w) work is motivated by inherent interest and generally unpaid. Think of the difference between an Encyclopedia Britannica editor doing Work, and a Wikipedia editor doing work during spare hours. Big Work drives the economy; little work drives the Internet. Big Work builds skyscrapers; little work generates a half million fanfiction stories about Harry Potter.”

The full article is @ Clay Shirky: Doing work, or Doing Work?

(via: swissmiss)