Here's what I pretty much posted on the original site:
I don't think most people realize that the question was somewhat rhetorical. It is meant to provoke thought, which in my case it certainly has. And while I think it's a marvelous and important question to ask ourselves, I'd like to propose that an even more important, initial question that each of us should be able to answer is what is our true purpose (or mission) in life, and what are our priorities in how we utilize the resources (e.g. time, "cognitive surplus," etc.) within it? To the extent that we each have this firmly in grasp (and I'm guessing that many who are in denial will scoff at this question from the start), and are embracing it consciously, our thoughts and actions will then be driven...appropriately; thus, we will not be spending inordinate amounts of time watching tv, drinking gin, or kidding ourselves into believing we're just fine the way we are, thank you very much. That's because we VALUE our self-described purpose more highly than we do these other distractions.

All of this is something I refer to as "Value-Driven Thinking" as I shamelessly plug my (as yet unfinished, unpublished) book, entitled "Thinking with an Innovative Mind." That being said, I've given this concept a tremendous amount of thought already. And I think that Shirky is SPOT ON with his having highlighted it. Thank you for sharing this thought-provoking question in the first place. This forum on innovation (i.e. creating, not wasting, value) is precisely where such a discussion belongs.