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The Shirky Principle And A World Of Half-Assed Solutions
I picked up the Shirky Principle idea in this newsletter from Sahil Bloom:
Here’s the summary:
The Shirky Principle, named after writer Clay Shirky, states, “institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.”
In simple terms, companies (or people) have a tendency to avoid fully eliminating the problem that they sell a solution for, lest they become obsolete.
So, it’s why Discount Tire doesn’t really fix your tire issues all the way. It’s why consultants leave some things still dangling. It’s why your iPhone 7 will brick next week.
If the problem gets truly solved, the person or entity that claims to solve it becomes obsolete — because the problem is solved and ceases to exist. So how can the person or entity keep making money or being relevant re: that problem?
They’d need to reinvent — which is change, which is fearful. Who has time to reinvent? Who wants to dip in relevance or revenue?
What’s interesting about the Shirky Principle is that it happens to people all the time too. I used to be good friends with this girl Ramya back in the day; we went to college together and served on a Board together and she dated one of my ex-roommates. In 2008–2009, me, her, and her brother were all in NYC and probably hung out 2–3 times/week. Good people. Long since lost touch with her, potentially because I married her best friend from HS and we then got divorced. That’ll create some issues.
For a while pre-2008, tho, Ramya was in London and she’d call me sometimes (or lengthy emails) with boy issues. I can tell you with 15 years of hindsight now that I’d never totally solve these issues, because I wanted her to keep…
