The Shirky Principle
The Shirky Principle explained
Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.
Clay Shirky
The Shirky Principle suggests that complex solutions - a company, an industry, or a technology - can become so focused on the problem that they are solving, that they can inadvertently perpetuate the problem itself. This may be deliberate (a company striving to find new nuances to a problem which justify continued development of a solution), or inadvertent (being unable or unwilling to accept or build a solution which solves the problem completely or obviates it).
Related to:
- Upton Sinclair's famous line, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
- Clay Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma
See also: