https://ciaranlyons.com/Things other people said that Ciaran Lyons wants to remember.https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/live-is-the-shortcut-to-fomo/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/live-is-the-shortcut-to-fomo/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 20:09:07 GMT‘Live’ is the shortcut to FOMO. — Ben Thompson, “Vision Pro Baseball,” Dithering, September 1, 2026https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/better-than-free/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/better-than-free/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhen copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can’t be copied becomes scarce and valuable. When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied. — Kevin Kelly, Better Than Freehttps://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/company-is-the-sum-of-problems-solved/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/company-is-the-sum-of-problems-solved/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe value of a company is the sum of all problems solved. — Martin Lorentzon, “Thanksgiving in Stockholm,” StartUp Podcasthttps://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/disruption-begins-with-an-n-of-one/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/disruption-begins-with-an-n-of-one/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTEvery disruption begins with an n of 1. — Larry Smarr, “The Patient of the Future,” MIT Technology Reviewhttps://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/great-silence-and-technological-efficiency/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/great-silence-and-technological-efficiency/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTIn the Great Silence, we see the future of technology, and it lies in achieving greater and greater efficiencies, until our machines approach the thermodynamic equilibria of their environment, and our economics is replaced by an ecology where nothing is wasted. After all, SETI is essentially a search for technological waste products: waste heat, waste light, waste electromagnetic signals. We merely have to posit that successful civilizations don't produce such waste, and the failure of SETI is explained. — Karl Schroeder, “The Deepening Paradox,” November 30, 2011https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/greener-version-of-technology/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/greener-version-of-technology/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTso far there's been no technology that we've invented that we have not been able to invent a greener version of. So I don't think that right now the technology that we have is necessarily the most compatible with life but because we can always make the Technium more compatible it suggests that the Technium is not inherently incompatible with life, that that compatibility is there, resident; we have not yet expressed it entirely. — Kevin Kelly, “Such a Long Journey — An Interview with Kevin Kelly,” Boing Boing, May 11, 2012https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/higher-education-rarities-discussed-as-norms/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/higher-education-rarities-discussed-as-norms/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTLife in the college dorm and on the grassy quad are rarities discussed as norms. […] Those of us in the traditional academy could have a hand in shaping that future, but doing so will require us to relax our obsessive focus on elite students, institutions, and faculty. It will require us to stop regarding ourselves as irreplaceable occupiers of sacred roles, and start regarding ourselves as people who do several jobs society needs done, only one of which is creating new knowledge. — Clay Shirky, “The End of Higher Education’s Golden Age,” January 29, 2014https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/information-wants-to-be-free/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/information-wants-to-be-free/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTOn the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other. — Stewart Brand, 1984 Hackers Conferencehttps://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/institutions-and-tractable-problems/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/institutions-and-tractable-problems/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTFreed of the twin dangers of navel-gazing and random walks, an institution can concentrate its efforts on some persistent, medium-sized, and tractable problem, working at a scale and longevity unavailable to its individual participants. — Clay Shirky, Institutions, Confidence, and the News Crisis, December 2011https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/nobody-wants-to-do-maintenance/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/nobody-wants-to-do-maintenance/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTAnother flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance. — Kurt Vonnegut, Hocus Pocushttps://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/non-transactional-motivations/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/non-transactional-motivations/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTInstead, it must also appeal to its readers’ non-financial and non-transactional motivations: loyalty, gratitude, dedication to the mission, a sense of identification with the paper, an urge to preserve it as an institution rather than a business. — Clay Shirky, “Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users,” January 4, 2012https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/readers-are-untapped-resource/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/readers-are-untapped-resource/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTOur readers are perhaps our greatest untapped resource. Deepening our connection with them both online and offline is critical in a world where content so often reaches its broadest audience on the backs of other readers. — The New York Times Innovation Report, New York Times Innovation Report, March 24, 2014https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/reward-for-good-work-is-more-work/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/reward-for-good-work-is-more-work/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe reward for good work is more work. — Tom Sachs, Tom Sachs, the Handyman of High Art, GQ, March 25, 2019https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/right-to-ignore-you/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/right-to-ignore-you/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTIf you bite on everything they throw at you, they will grind you down. You have to ignore a certain amount of stuff. The thing I keep saying to them lately is: “I have to love you, and I have the right to ignore you.” When my kids ask what I want for my birthday or Christmas or whatever, I use the same answer my father did: “Peace and quiet.” That was never a satisfactory answer to me as a kid — I wanted an answer like “A pipe.” But now I see the wisdom of it: All I want is you at your best — you making this an easier home to live in, you thinking of others. — Bill Murray, “Bill Murray: The ESQ+A,” Esquire, June/July 2012https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/selfie-is-the-new-currency/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/selfie-is-the-new-currency/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe only memento ‘kids these days’ want is a selfie. It’s part of the new currency, which seems to be ‘how many followers you have on Instagram.’ — Taylor Swift, “For Taylor Swift, the Future of Music Is a Love Story,” The Wall Street Journalhttps://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/seven-year-time-horizon/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/seven-year-time-horizon/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTIf everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you’re competing against a lot of people. But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you’re now competing against a fraction of those people, because very few companies are willing to do that. Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavors that you could never otherwise pursue. — Jeff Bezos, In conversation with Jeff Bezos - CEO of the internet, Wired, December 12, 2011https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/small-objects-travel-further-faster/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/small-objects-travel-further-faster/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTSmall objects travel further, faster. — Jan Chipchase, Small objects travel further, fasterhttps://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/technology-that-matches-their-gifts/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/technology-that-matches-their-gifts/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTSomewhere on Earth today are young geniuses waiting for a technology that will perfectly match their gifts. If we are lucky, they'll live long enough for our knowledge and technology to make the opportunity they need. — Kevin Kelly, New Rules for the New Economy, Chapter 10: “Opportunities Before Efficiencies”https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/the-two-things/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/the-two-things/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTYou know, the Two Things. For every subject, there are really only two things you really need to know. Everything else is the application of those two things, or just not important — Glen Whitman, The Two Thingshttps://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/this-i-saw-this-i-experienced/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/this-i-saw-this-i-experienced/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTYou can say to yourself: this I saw, this I experienced, this I know to be the truth. — Marion Scott Carpenter, Letter to Malcolm Scott Carpenter before the Aurora 7 flight, May 1962https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/two-products-at-the-end-of-a-programme/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/two-products-at-the-end-of-a-programme/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhen I look back over the last 25 years, in some ways what seems most precious is not what we have made but how we have made it and what we have learned as a consequence of that. I always think that there are two products at the end of a programme; there is the physical product or the service, the thing that you have managed to make, and then there is all that you have learned. The power of what you have learned enables you to do the next thing and it enables you to do the next thing better. — Jony Ive, “The World According to Jony Ive,” Wallpaper*, November 9, 2017https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/wonderment-as-kpi/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/wonderment-as-kpi/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhat if we designed our exhibitions to hold things back from some visitors? And to purposefully make some elements of an exhibition ‘in-accessible’ to all? What if we made ‘wonderment’ our Key Performance Indicator? — Seb Chan, “Sleep no more: magic, immersive storytelling and the ‘connected’ museum,” Fresh + New(er), May 23, 2012https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/world-as-our-playground/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/world-as-our-playground/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTWe will use the world as our playground and I have the technology to back it up. If I don't, I will make it. — Ze Frank, A Show with Ze Frankhttps://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/world-is-not-yet-done/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/world-is-not-yet-done/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTTHINGS CAN BE BETTER, SO THERE IS WORK TO DO. THE WORLD IS NOT YET DONE. LUCKY US. — Frank Chimero, FrankChimero.comhttps://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/you-are-not-late/https://ciaranlyons.com/found-quotes/2026/09/07/you-are-not-late/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTBecause here is the other thing the greybeards in 2044 will tell you: Can you imagine how awesome it would have been to be an entrepreneur in 2014? It was a wide-open frontier! You could pick almost any category X and add some AI to it, put it on the cloud. Few devices had more than one or two sensors in them, unlike the hundreds now. Expectations and barriers were low. It was easy to be the first. And then they would sigh, “Oh, if only we realized how possible everything was back then!” — Kevin Kelly, You Are Not Late