You know, the same things that are scarce in the “real world” are just as scarce on the Internet.

Which is odd to a lot of people, particularly those whose exuberance about the Internet and Web 2.0 resembles a kind of creepy utopianism. Don’t get me wrong — the digital age has given us a lot of potentially great tools and resources, but it’s still no cure for the human condition. As someone I deeply admire is fond of saying, “we’re in the twenty-first century technologically, but we’re still in the first century behaviorially.”

The Internet (and the digital “revolution”) has made us more connected, but still searching for intimacy:

• given us more “community,” but no greater civility
• given us more information, but no greater wisdom
• given us more opinions, but no greater enlightenment
• given us more choices, but no greater focus

And so the rules of success on the Internet will be the same as in the real world — the people who will continue to make the greatest contributions to society are the ones who can give us (or lead the way to) the things — online or off — that are most scarce in life and in work.

Update on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 by Joe Fusco

For additional perspective on the “more connected, less intimate” tension, this article is a fascinating and comprehensive exploration.