Tim Wu

truism are eat think information expose

“It is an underacknowledged truism that, just as you are what you eat, how and what you think depends on what information you are exposed to.”

― Tim Wu

attention homo distractus

“It is no coincidence that ours is a time afflicted by a widespread sense of attentional crisis, at least in the West - one captured by the phrase ''homo distractus,'' a species of ever shorter attention span known for compulsively checking his devices.”

― Tim Wu

online service free customer product

“When an online service is free, you're not the customer. You're the product.”

― Tim Wu

information industry monopoly cost economy idea censorship

“In an information industry the cost of monopoly must not be measured in dollars alone, but also in its effect on the economy of ideas and images, the restraint of which can ultimately amount to censorship.”

― Tim Wu

modern age really

“Every age thinks it’s the modern age, but this one really is.”

― Tim Wu

commodity information valuable use

“Unlike almost every other commodity, information becomes more valuable the more it is used.”

― Tim Wu

market born free emperor chains freedom private public

"Markets are born free, yet no sooner are they born than some would-be emperor is forging chains. Paradoxically, it sometimes happens that the only way to preserve freedom is through judicious controls on the exercise of private power. If we believe in liberty, it must be freedom from both private and public coercion."

― Tim Wu

world wide web

"Take back the web because it is a situation that really isn't working for anyone."

― Tim Wu

blessing state information empire

"The blessing of the state, implicit or explicit, has been crucial to every twentieth-century information empire."

― Tim Wu