Category: Web/Tech

What do CEOs and other notables pay attention to?

by  Tyler Cowen in

Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry, has a good answer:

"As far as my media diet, I’m a hoover for print and will read whatever blows my way … I find New Scientist to be the best sci mag. Also subscribe to Wired, Onion and Resurgence. I use a feedreader to keep up with about 35 sources (news digests and blogs). We have an extensive, active backchannel portfolio of blogs for the Biomimicry Ravalli Republic.
POV: Nightline, Daily Show, NOW, Comedy Channel Presents, couple of
Showtime dramas. Love stand up comedy for its honesty and pathos about
the current state of things. And, of course, I can waste away my youth
surfing the web. Love living in this era."

Joe Tripodi of Allstate has another good response:

"I’d summarize as: Read about it; experience it; observe it. I get a ton of e-mails every day from Media Post, Brand Week, Ad Week, NYT,
etc, etc. I try reading books about the ‘new world order,’ but find
they are virtually obsolete before I finish them. Experience it! You
have to walk the talk. I have iPods (regular, Nano and Shuffle), three
TiVos (sacrilege, I know, but time is too short to watch all the
commercials), 8700c Blackberry, DirecTV, HDTV, etc. I try to spend time
regularly on new web destinations, especially those generating some
buzz. Observe it! I have three young children (10, 8, 6) and learn more
from them than any new-media ‘guru.’ They sit near the epicenter of
this ADD economy. Recently they’ve been swept away by the cultural
Tsunami called "American Idol." Lots of gaming, surfing, texting, etc.

Remember Barry Schwartz?  He is the guy who wrote The Paradox of Choice: Why Less is More.  Here is his answer:

"Frankly, what I do is ignore new stuff as long as I possibly can. I
let the rest of the world force me to do new things just to be
compatible with them. My view is that anything that doesn’t last at
least three years after its initial appearance isn’t worth knowing
about. But I’m an old-fashioned guy."

Puts the whole book in perspective, doesn’t it?

Here is the whole story.  Thanks to Tim Sullivan for the pointer.

Why we will not see convergence

by  Tyler Cowen in

Here is the best explanation I have heard:

McCracken says most homes are consolidating around a two-hub model. A
PC (or Mac) with some multimedia features anchors the home office,
while a TV with some computerized gear–think TiVo, not desktop
computer–owns the living room. Tech marketers talk about the "2-foot interface"
of the PC versus the "10-foot interface" of the TV. When you use a
computer, you want to lean forward and engage with the thing, typing
and clicking and multitasking. When you watch Lost, you want
to sit back and put your feet up on the couch. My tech-savvy friends
who can afford anything they want set up a huge HDTV with TiVo, cable,
and DVD players–then sit in front of it with a laptop on their knees.
They use Google and AIM while watching TV, but they keep their 2-foot
and 10-foot gadgets separate.

Lean forward, lean back.  They are two pretty different angles.  Imagine if that distinction were to drive the development of entertainment media over the next century.  Here is the full argument.  By the way, when I lie in bed I find I have completely different thoughts depending on whether I am on my side or on my back.  And I hate to read when I am leaning on my elbows.

Does blogging improve our lives?

by  Tyler Cowen in

I’m not talking about BlogAds revenue or better chances to write Op-Eds.  I mean our lives.  Ben Casnocha writes:

…I recently had a great solo dinner in Rome. I had a
terrific companion (newspaper) and good food. About 1/4 of the way
through this thought crossed my mind: "This is an awesome meal. I’m
going to blog it." I did. I was committed in my mind to making it a positive night overall, and it did end up that way. In sum: when
I know I’m going to blog an experience, I’m committed to making it a
positive experience, and since intention and reaction mostly define the
quality of an experience, it usually turns out positive. True, I
could always commit to having positive days each day, but knowing I
will blog something introduces a weird form of "public accountability."

Ben is an excellent blogger; here are Ben’s impressions of France.  Is he right about blogging? 

Round-up

by  Tyler Cowen in

1. How to make "The Long Tail" work.

2. The economics of orchestras.

3. The TradeSports.com dispute over the North Korean missile launch, and more here.

4. Another interview with Milton Friedman.

5. Betting markets in everything.

6. Farm subsidies and Africa; counter the conventional wisdom, by DSquared.

7. Interview with Charles Murray.  Btw, I don’t think human achievement has declined.

8. Review of the new Adam Phillips book, his kissing and tickling book is wonderful.

How technology can mess up friendships

by  Tyler Cowen in

…communications technology may carry with it the danger of exacerbating neediness; it can potentially bring out the borderline personality in all of us–if
a friend could have called, then why didn’t he? Why doesn’t he pick up
when I call his cell phone? If she saw I was online, then why didn’t
she IM me? Why is it taking her so long to reply to my last IM? Is she
IMing with someone else right now? Is that person more important than
me? If I have so much access to everyone, then why do I feel ignored?
I admit, it takes special breed of paranoia to go down that avenue… In the meantime, while I mull that over,
I’ll keep paying my broadband bill.

That is Rob Horning, who more generally fears the effects of quantification on our personal lives.  There is much to be said for mystery.  In principal-agent lingo, a threshold standard may lead to more cooperation than a sliding scale for judging effort.  The extra noise involved in the sliding scale can increase signal extraction problems (also known as misunderstandings) and induce unneeded retaliations and manipulative strategies.

Here is a related post by Rob.  Here is Rob on how "The Long Tail" may destroy the cultural underground.  Thanks to Robin Hanson for the pointer to Rob’s writings.

Addendum: Sangho Yoon directs me to this article on how cellphones are changing social life; my favorite quotation from the article is the woman who says: "There are real people in there."