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Conversations with Tyler

Jimmy Wales on Systems and Incentives

Conversations with Tyler

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2020

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jimmy Wales used to joke that choosing to build Wikipedia on a non-profit, non-advertising model was either the best or worst decision he ever made—but he doesn't joke about that anymore. "If you think about advertising-driven social media…it's driven them in many cases to prioritize agitation and argumentation in a negative sense over education and learning and thoughtfulness." In his now ceremonial role, Jimmy spends a lot of time thinking about how to structure incentives so that the Wikipedia community stays aligned on values and focused on building an ever-improving encyclopedia.

Jimmy joined Tyler to discuss what happens when content moderation goes wrong, why certain articles are inherently biased, the threat that repealing section 230 poses to Wikipedia, whether he believes in Conquest's Law, the difference between "paid editing" and "paid advocacy editing," how Wikipedia handles alternative accounts, the right to be forgotten, his unusual education in Huntsville, Alabama, why Ayn Rand is under- and over-rated, the continual struggle to balance good rules and procedures against impenetrable bureaucracy, how Wikipedia is responding to mobile use, his attempt to build a non-toxic social media platform, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded October 21st, 2020

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,

0:08.4

bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.

0:12.6

Learn more at mercatis.org.

0:15.3

And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit

0:20.5

ConversationsWithT Tyler.com.

0:26.4

Hello everyone and welcome back to ConversationsWithT Tyler.

0:30.2

Today I'm talking with Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia fame.

0:33.6

Jimmy, welcome.

0:34.6

Thank you.

0:35.6

It's very good to be here.

0:36.9

Let's say there's a benevolent donor of either money or time.

0:40.7

Where in the Wikipedia system is the highest marginal return for that person?

0:44.9

Well, I think it depends on that person because if you're looking to make a marginal impact,

0:51.8

if you have unique knowledge on some fairly obscure topic that no one else has, then you

0:58.7

may be the best person or the only person in the world who can actually make a difference

1:02.4

in that area.

1:04.3

On the other hand, if you want to be the 11 million person who's keeping an eye on the

1:11.5

Donald Trump article, well your contribution while important is probably going to be marginally

1:16.2

speaking a little bit less.

1:18.4

So I think it just sort of depends.

1:22.4

What we see oftentimes is that people who have the largest impact for the amount of time

1:26.7

they're spending are people who are working in smaller languages in the developing world.

...

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