Clay Shirky
Writer on the social and economic effects of the internet; author of Here Comes Everybody (2008) and Cognitive Surplus (2010), and a long-time teacher at New York University.
Clay Shirky did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 11 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Uses emacs
My writing tools have gone through three phases: 1993-2003, mainly emacs in a telnet window.
usesthis.com 15 Apr 2014
Disliked Mavericks
I dislike what I've seen of Mavericks – the earlier removal of "Save as…" in native apps was already a portent of The End Times, as if more were needed, and Mavericks looks to go further in that direction
usesthis.com 15 Apr 2014
Mixed on Digg
After several years, I've just stopped using Netvibes in favor of Digg's newsreader. Digg doesn't work as well as Netvibes (and I may ultimately switch back),
usesthis.com 15 Apr 2014
Show 8 more
Mixed on BeOS
I used BeOS for a month or so in 1997, which was beautiful but didn't play well with others.
usesthis.com 15 Apr 2014
Mixed on Chromebook
The kitchen machine is a cheap-o Chromebook, which has a pretty lousy case and keyboard but is fine for recipes and playing NPR.
usesthis.com 15 Apr 2014
Liked LG flip phone
so I also carry an LG flip phone (my one non-*n[iu]x tool] which is useless in every respect except the two crucial ones: call quality is great, and the battery lasts for days.
usesthis.com 15 Apr 2014
Disliked iPads
I've tried iPads and Nexi tablets, but didn't like them – they are both consumption-centric and concentration-destroying, which is for me a deadly combination.
usesthis.com 15 Apr 2014
Uses BBEdit
Then from 2003-2012, it was mainly BBEdit and WebDAV (latterly Dropbox),
usesthis.com 15 Apr 2014
Liked Chrome
and, starting in '12, a mixed period where I moved all my writing to Google Docs and coding to Sublime. (My browser is Chrome because duh.)
usesthis.com 15 Apr 2014
Liked Sublime
but I do just enough coding to want python running locally, and I've never found a Chrome extension that is anything like as good as Sublime for coding.
usesthis.com 15 Apr 2014
Loved Kindle Paperwhite
I do have two Kindle Paperwhites (two because I lost one in a pile of papers and replaced it and then found it again) which I love. The Kindle's best feature is that it offers no way to check my email.
usesthis.com 15 Apr 2014
Where they publish
Bluesky @cshirky.bsky.social Occasional posts on the internet, media and politics
Link verified 31 Oct 2026.
About the English under a post
Some people here publish in a language other than English. Where they do, this site shows a machine translation beneath the post, in this typeface — the site's own, not theirs.
The post itself is never changed, moved or hidden: what is set in the serif above is exactly what the person published, and it is what to quote them on. A translation can be wrong in ways that matter, especially about tone.
Only the post's own words are translated. A quoted post, a linked article and a belief on korrents.com are left in their original language.