The Dilemma (and Power) of Free

In recent days, I have focused on getting paid for what you know. But, of course, there is another big story in the knowledge economy—one that is still being written. Basically, one of the challenging truths of the knowledge economy is that you will end up giving away a lot of your knowledge.

Google’s search business is the simplest but most dramatic example of this. Their search business yields $20+ billion in advertising revenues each year. But the core product, the search itself, is free. This means that Google gives away huge amounts of value every day and still has managed to become one of the leading companies of the knowledge era thus far.

Another great example is the Grateful Dead. Read more