digital mirrors

My favorite quote from the Microsoft Social Computing Symposium appeared in the backchannel on the last day:

Scott Golder: “We build digital mirrors. And when you see a digital mirror, what do you do? Fix your hair, and straighten your tie.”

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2 thoughts on “digital mirrors”

  1. Kevin Marks

    This reminds me of Wilde’s preface to Dorian Gray

    The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.

    The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. […]

    Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

    All art is quite useless.

    More on this from me and Weinberger

  2. Jeff Cooper

    I thought that Ballmer’s quote that “There’s no innovation that we’ve seen come out of at least Linux,” was quite… uh… stirring.

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