Mark Zuckerberg at Web 2.0

Mark Zuckerberg's laws

At this week's Web 2.0 Summit, the Facebook founder mused, according to Saul Hansell of the New York Times, "I would expect that next year, people will share twice as much information as they share this year, and [the] next year, they will be sharing twice as much as they did the year before."

Hansell dubs this Zuckerberg's Law. But I believe it's actually Zuckerberg's Second Law. Zuckerberg's First Law, enunciated on another fall day almost precisely one year ago, took this elemental form: "Once every hundred years media changes."

Zuckerberg's Second Law is certainly superior to Zuckerberg's First Law, if only because it is not quite so obviously false. If you're going to make up big laws, it's always best to make them up about the future rather than the past.

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog