Freelancing Gods 2008

I’m slowly making my way through Richard Florida’s The Rise of the Creative Class (yes, I should have read it a couple of years ago, I know), and came across a nice quote – paraphrasing the thoughts of Joel Mokyr, that I thought was rather apt when considering the stupidity and greed of the mobile phone carriers in Australia (in general, and in regard to Apple’s iPhone):

“Technical creativity has tended to rise and then fade dramatically at various times in various cultures, when social and economic institutions turn rigid and act against it.”

You could argue Telstra, Optus and Vodafone aren’t doing anything against technical creativity, sure – but they’re certainly not doing anything for it either.

If you want a much better, more detailed write-up, go read what John Allsop has to say.