A firm is successful when the costs of directing employee effort are lower than the potential gain from directing.

[F]or any group determined to maintain a set of communal standards some mechanism of enforcement must exist.

Collaboration is not an absolute good.

Any system described by a power law [...] has several curious effects. The first is that, by definition, most participants are below average.

[R]elying on nonfinancial motivations may actually make systems more tolerant of variable participation.

The more people are involved in a given task, the more potential agreements need to be negotiated to do anything, and the greater the transaction costs.