Clay Shirky Sparks the Knowledge Age

Recently, multiple bloggers have raved about ‘Here Comes Everybody’, Clay Shirky’s book about how social media is affecting society. I am glad to have the book to read. I am pumped to read it. I am FAR more excited to have been introduced to the mind of Shirky.

My good friend, Jason Northington, a.k.a. The Architect of Wow, sent me this powerful video of Clay speaking about what a 4 year-old knows that you and I do not.

The highlight for me is when Clay mentions a 4-year old who was digging around the back of the television. When the parents got over it being cute, they asked what he was looking for.

He peaked his head around and said, “the mouse.”

A 4-year old knows that if it does not ship with a mouse, it ships broken.

Shirky said this to mean that the expectations of the new generation are that of choosing something other than simply watching what is handed to us. They are looking for an even greater sense of control.

Where previous generations simply stupefied themselves with gin (the Industrial age) or ‘Sex in the City’ (the Information Age), this new era is seeing people step out of the stupor, identify their “cognitive surplus” and look for the proverbial mouse; look for a way to make a change.

This is a powerful step; to move from taking whatever is handed to us. To move from choosing shutting our minds off to simply looking for a way to click away what we do not like and look for what we want.

And this power of choice is awe-inspiring.

So much so that, Clay asserts, we will begin to see the dawn of a new era of actually employing and using this cognitive surplus.

In his book, ‘The 8th Habit’, Steven Covey calls it The Knowledge Age. (‘The 8th Habit took me 2 and a half months to get through. I will be doing a book review on it, but am actually quite overwhelmed by it, to be honest.)

Just to keep up with the pack, I believe that we will have to acquire new skills and new paradigms,..and quickly!

If Shirky and Covey are correct, this transition of ages will bring major change, and most of it will be painful.

Hold On, There’s Good News

And that good news is that, if we do learn new skills, operate out of new, healthy paradigms, and learn to implement those necessary changes, we, as a race, will prosper immensely.

We will prosper simply because the rest of the world will be clamoring for those who know how to quickly acquire new skills. They will be asking questions about how can we hyper-niche ourselves.

How can you work for yourself?
How do you outsource?
What are the best materials on holistic health, vision, or small-business development?
How do you develop a strategy for success and have it integrated with one’s micro-niche?
How do I integrate my efforts with my passion and dream?

And on and on it goes. Yes, many people have already started these questions, but the bulk of the population has not. When the age transition happens, thousands, millions more people will be out of work, building even more self-employment jobs or transitioning to new work, and will need to be able to operate on a higher, more holistic plane.

Thus It Sparks

So, are you already studying like a banshee? Are you already reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The 8th Habit, or the E-myth series? Can you already lay out an infopreneuring strategy? Can you articulate your dream? Do you understand “states of mind”, personality profiles, or neurolinguistic programming?

If not, do not worry; it’s not too late!

BUT, I would encourage you to a) stay tuned to the site and pick up the resources that I mention, b) start the necessary studying now, and c) start creating your vision.

If you are getting stuck on the vision part, I would suggest you download my 7 Day Homework as a very, beginning point, just to get the juices flowing. Then we will move on to more detailed goal-setting plans.