It's worth noting that this Clay Shirky quote is a modern retelling of a classic Upton Sinclair quote from 1935: "It is difficult to get a man to understand so

It's worth noting that this Clay Shirky quote is a modern retelling of a classic Upton Sinclair quote from 1935: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" (I, Candidate For Governor: And How I Got Licked, p109—available on Google Books.)