Yochai Benkler

Benkler writes a very detailed and example rich argument against the rational-actor theory. Counter to the idea that humans will always act in their short-term best interest, Benkler provides a wealth of examples from evolutionary biology, psychology, anthropology, and computer science to show how other motivations often surpass self-interest in guiding our decision making.

Notes on finishing the book:
This is a timely and important book. Benkler presents a unceasingly rational argument for show more cooperation and sharing. This argument is a counter-balance to the cries of "Socialist!" coming from the political right, but Benkler avoids that framing of the issue and sticks to research-based arguments against the point of view that asserts humans *only* act in short-term self interest, so our systems should be designed to reflect that.

Benkler presents a much broader view of human motivation and makes a compelling and sound argument that most humans pursue cooperation some of hte time and many humans pursue cooperation most of the time, so designing social systems that take these motivations into account help us build, not just more cooperative, but more efficient and more productive systems.

The combination of timely argument and meticulously sourced evidence makes this a very important book. show less

Very interesting book, explains in DETAIL the facets of peer production and collective intelligence. A must read, but quite difficult to go through.

Good reading but some concepts can be very condensed and difficult to understand due to the style of writing. But the work remains an important work in Today's world...

Brilliant book. Must read. In keeping with the analysis in the book, Yochai Benkler made the full text available under a Creative Commons, Non-Commercial licence.