It struck me that Clay Shirky’s lovely notion of cognitive surplus has another expression in these panel and single speaker conferences. Where sitcoms mask cognitive surplus, occasions like this NESTA Innovation conference amplify and magnify it. We have 3,000 smart people (ok not smart enough to not come, but pretty smart nonetheless) sitting in a room listening to 4 other smart people on stage. The weight of ideas, thoughts, inspiration and excitement is enormous, and for me anyway painful – we all rush out to grab food and talk rapidly before coming back in to listen to the prime minister. Gaaaah! Cue Desperate Housewives.
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May 22, 2008 at 9:29 am
tina
Perfectly said_ cognitive surplus. I couldn’t decide if I was more inspired or frustrated. So much to say, so little time. I felt gagged.
May 22, 2008 at 10:42 am
Lloyd Davis
Thanks Tina – I can’t take credit for it’s coinage – that’s down to Clay Shirky – but it certainly is a great phrase and I’ve a bunch of draft posts exploring other aspects of it.
May 22, 2008 at 8:41 pm
a work on process » Thoughts on Innovation Edge 2008
[...] the vastly differing levels of knowledge and expertise around. In that I definitely resonate with Lloyd’s mention of Cognitive Surplus which became more evident as the day [...]