Not sure how much of this is a critique of the book versus a critique of the review: The argument that Internet is undermining the role of top-down or hierarchical knowledge production is a ridiculous one and is only one that you can make if you don't actually look at the structure of the Internet/web, etc. Preferential attachment and the creation of scale free networks show that these systems are incredibly hierarchical and incredibly "top down." The institutions aren't gone, you just aren't looking for them in their new form.
Interesting macro-economic insight and thesis. Very interesting design of a publication (almost certainly the most beautiful economic text I've ever read). I'll bet complexity is really just a proxy for a bunch of other things, but I doubt the authors would really disagree.
"There’s no DRM field in the product listing, but it turns out there’s an easy way to tell: just check under product details whether the title has device usage set to unlimited. If so, there’s no DRM."
I don't really see how this a new paradigm, but maybe that's just didn't because I didn't read the book yet.
"When do states adopt the moral frames promoted by transnational advocacy organizations? Joshua W. Busby examines the success and failure of advocacy campaigns for debt relief, climate change, HIV/AIDS treatment, and membership in the International Criminal Court in the G7 countries to show that states adopt normative commitments based on key gatekeepers, and their perceptions of national interest. Moral Movements and Foreign Policy argues that material interests of states and of individual politicians are insufficient explanatory variables for making sense of foreign policy choices. Moral language, religious motivations, the desire to live up to a virtuous self-image all shape highly consequential foreign policy decisions that impact everything from foreign aid budgets to the voluntary ceding of state sovereignty over armed forces."
"In fact, out of the top 25 best-selling indie Kindle writers, only 6 were previously affiliated with a publishing house."
I saw this as a MetaFilter question once. That thread did more to expand my reading list than any single page. Pretty nice to see it (or something like it) distilled into a site.
Via Marcel. Interesting looking book by an early Google Brand/Marketing director.
Ouch. This is a bad book review: "The empirical information he provides is perfunctory at best. His command of Marxism seems limited. His historical reach extends to his own earlier works. His vast theoretical apparatus is jimmy-rigged and empty. The graphs are inane, the writing atrocious. To call this book dull as dish water maligns dish water."
Interesting answer. Also, this is the first time I've actually been referred to something on Quora. So somebody is using it after all!
Profile of my advisor in the NYT. Why is it in the arts section? Not quite sure.
Awesome interview of Lewis Hyde by Mike Linksvayer. Not often you find an interview as familiar with the interviewees work as you do here. It helps, I guess, if the reader of the interview is familiar with Hyde's broader work as well.
Inventing the printing press is the easy part. Inventing the market for its products is tough.
Very interesting information on how Amazon is storing files for the Kindle.
I think have most of these already.
I've got a version of the revealing errors article in this upcoming book.
``North Korea will have less complications surrounding copyright issues compared to the South, and with the government pushing the project directly, the country seems to have acquired a wealth of e-book content over a relatively short period of time,'' Kim told Yonhap News.
"I would estimate that about 80% of the non-academic non-fiction books that I do not find a complete waste of time (i.e. good books in politics, economics etc – I can’t speak to genres that I don’t know) are at least twice as long as they should be." Amen.
