September 2008
52 posts
Vacation
Give Me Something To Read will be on vacation for the next two weeks while its editor gets married and goes on his honeymoon.
While you’re waiting:
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Updates will resume the week of October 6 after the editor has a slightly heavier left hand, a bunch of gifts, and a much larger iPhoto library.
Online Literacy Is a Lesser Kind →
What we are seeing is a strange flattening of the act of reading. […] It casts peeking at a text message and plowing through Middlemarch as subsets of one general activity. And it treats those quick bursts of words and icons as fully sufficient to sustain the reading culture.
Diamond and Kashyap on the Recent Financial... →
I knocked on the doors of my colleagues Doug Diamond and Anil Kashyap, and asked them for the answers. What they told me was so interesting and insightful that I begged them to write their explanations down for a broader audience. They were kind enough to take the time to do so. In what follows, they discuss what has happened in the financial sector in the last few days, why it happened, and...
The End →
The book business as we know it will not be living happily ever after. With sales stagnating, CEO heads rolling, big-name authors playing musical chairs, and Amazon looming as the new boogeyman, publishing might have to look for its future outside the corporate world.
Gut Instinct’s Surprising Role in Math →
Countdown to a Meltdown →
A look back from the election of 2016.
How My Start-Up Failed →
There was no doubt about it: I had discovered The Next Big Thing. Like Edison and the lightbulb, like Gates and the pc operating system, I would launch a revolution that would transform society while bringing me wealth and fame. I was about to become the first person in America to sell condom key chains.
Is Pornography Adultery? →
Making America Stupid →
Unless we make America the country most able to innovate, compete and win in the age of globalization, our leverage in the world will continue to slowly erode.
Consider the Lobster →
Up until sometime in the 1800s, though, lobster was literally low-class food, eaten only by the poor and institutionalized. Even in the harsh penal environment of early America, some colonies had laws against feeding lobsters to inmates more than once a week because it was thought to be cruel and unusual, like making people eat rats.
Are Too Many People Going to College? →
America’s university system is creating a class-riven nation. There has to be a better way.
Jeffrey Zeldman: A modest proposal →
If you’re selling toothpaste, your claims must be vetted by legal and medical professionals. But not if you’re selling a candidate.
If you’re selling a candidate, not only can you lie about his record, but more to the point, you can lie about his opponent.
Born To Run →
Biomechanical research reveals a surprising key to the survival of our species: Humans are built to outrun nearly every other animal on the planet over long distances.
The social web: All about the small stuff →
What makes two friends feel “close” to one another?
Rands In Repose: Impossible →
On managers and CEOs asking and claiming to do “the impossible”.
David Foster Wallace: Commencement Speech at... →
Waiting for the Zune Generation →
On Wednesday, Adam Sohn, the head of public relations for Microsoft’s Zune division, told me: “Babies are born every day without an iPod. We will get there.”
Lance Armstrong Rides Again →
The prescient politics of The Big Lebowski →
The Falling Man →
On the famous September 11 photo of a man who jumped out of the World Trade Center to his inevitable death.
The Gentleman's Guide to the Calling Card →
I, human →
Robotics: They are staples of science fiction. And it seems that humanoid robots may make people feel more at ease than other designs.
The Wars of John McCain →
John McCain believes the Vietnam War was winnable. Now he argues that an Obama administration would accept defeat in Iraq, with grave costs to American honor and national security. Is McCain’s quest for victory a reflection of an antiquated pre-Vietnam mind-set? Or of a commitment to principles we abandon at our peril? Is there any war McCain thinks can’t be won?
43 Folders: Time, Attention, and Creative Work →
Merlin Mann redefines the mission of 43 Folders:
I want to help you identify and remove any obstacle that keeps you from making things that you love. And then I want to help you figure out how to make those things even better. That’s pretty much it.
…including a decisive move away from “productivity porn”.
Georgia and the Balance of Power →
Engineering the Revolution →
Mike Lee’s new inspiration and direction for using the software business as a philanthropic tool.
On community organizers and prisoners of war →
Dan’s illuminating perspective on what, exactly, community organizers really do and why they’re necessary.
Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret →
Steve Yegge in something far too long for me to read now to find a cohesive theme, but it’s probably good.
Why So Serious? →
How the classical concert took shape.
We're Gonna Frickin' Lose this Thing →
Why Democrats may be doomed to lose again.
A List Apart: Look at it Another Way →
Viewing challenges and design decisions by stepping outside of your organization.
How the Music Business Spent the Summer Killing... →
Rules for Computing Happiness →
Forbes: The YouTube Solution →
The escalating breakdown of urban society across... →
The Perilous Price of Oil →
Perry Anderson: Kemalism →
The meek shall inherit the web →
Brave New World of Digital Intimacy: I’m So... →
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The Gentleman Grafter →
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Cory Doctorow: Macropayments →
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Falling Down: No manufacturing. No new ideas.... →
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Merlin Mann: Better →
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Why Young Men Delay Adulthood to Stay in "Guyland" →
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Roger Ebert: How to read a movie →
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The "Eagleton Scenario" →
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Important work can be done while daydreaming →
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The Myth of the Tragedy of the Commons →
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Tuesdays with Rupert →
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The death of the credit card economy →
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