Kevin Kelly Quotes

American author and co-founder of Wired magazine

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Kevin Kelly (born 1952) is the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and a former editor/publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog. Kelly is considered an expert in digital culture, and is said to have helped make technology part of popular culture.

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It is impossible for you to become poor by giving. It is impossible for you to become wealthy without giving.

If you meet a jerk, ignore them. If you meet jerks everywhere every day, look deeper into yourself.

Don’t say anything about someone in email you would not be comfortable saying to them directly because eventually it will reach them.

Your best job will be one that you were unqualified for, because it stretches you. In fact, only apply to jobs you are unqualified for.

A mind cannot possibly consider anything beyond what it can measure or calculate; without a body it can only consider itself. Without the interruptions of hellos from the eye, ear, tongue, nose, and finger, the evolving mind huddles in the corner picking its navel.

In fact, “I have a rule for X” is the only excuse you need for your own personal policies.

Greater personalization requires greater transparency. Absolute personalization (vanity) requires absolute transparency (no privacy). If I prefer to remain private and opaque to potential friends and institutions, then I must accept I will be treated generically, without regard to my specific particulars. I’ll be an average number.

Trust me: There is no “them.”

The web is hyperlinked documents; the cloud is hyperlinked data.

We are not a body that carries a soul. We are a soul that is assigned a body, not of our choosing, but in our care.

Don’t reserve you kindest praise
for a person until their eulogy. Tell them while they are alive
when it makes a difference to them
Write it in a letter they can keep.

To succeed once, focus on the outcome; to keep succeeding, focus on the process that makes the outcome.

It’s possible that a not-so-smart person who can communicate well can do much better than a super-smart person who can’t communicate well. That is good news because it is much easier to improve your communication skills than your intelligence.

The only factor becoming scarce in a world of abundance is human attention.

The glue that holds together institutions and processes as they undergo massive decentering is cheap, ubiquitous communication.