Archive for the 'Culture' Category

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Published by Jarred on February 11, 2009 in Business, Culture, News and Web 2.0. View Comments

Reminder: I speak for myself and not for my employer. BUY Colchicine ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION, Late last month, the New York Times ran an op-ed by David Swensen and Michael Schmidt called "News You Can Endow." It begins with this quote from Thomas Jefferson:

“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right. [...] And were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, ordering Colchicine online, Where can i find Colchicine online, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter.”

And then, ominously, kjøpe Colchicine på nett, köpa Colchicine online, Where can i buy Colchicine online, the authors declare:
"Today, we are dangerously close to having a government without newspapers, order Colchicine online c.o.d. Online buying Colchicine hcl, [...] If Jefferson was right that a well-informed citizenry is the foundation of our democracy, then newspapers must be saved."

I've done enough LSAT logical reasoning questions to recognize a broken argument when I see it.  I could hash it out, buy Colchicine without prescription, Buy cheap Colchicine no rx, but I much prefer passive aggressive analogies.  Let's say that Jefferson also wrote that the basis of commerce is the efficient movement of goods.  Today, however, buy Colchicine online cod, Where to buy Colchicine, we are dangerously close to having an economy without carriages.  Oh noes!  If Jefferson was right that excellent transportation is the foundation of our economy, then carriages must be saved!  Dunno about you, Colchicine over the counter, Where can i order Colchicine without prescription, but I'm pretty sure the CEO of FedEx would disagree.

Swensen and Schmidt go on to argue that turning newspapers into non-profit organizations funded by endowments "would enhance newspapers’ autonomy while shielding them from the economic forces that are now tearing them down."  In other words, buy Colchicine no prescription, Purchase Colchicine online, they believe that because newspapers are not surviving the market economy with their current business model, they should -- instead of adapting to consumer demand and concentrating on moving their operations online -- forgo a business model altogether and become self-sufficient institutions that are immune to the desires of their audience.  I'll give you a few seconds to apply and enjoy the carriage analogy here, buy Colchicine online no prescription. Where can i buy cheapest Colchicine online, Of course, as Michael Masnick at Techdirt points out, buy cheap Colchicine, Japan, craiglist, ebay, overseas, paypal, Jefferson wasn't really talking about newspapers as a medium, but newspapers as an implementation of journalism (just as -- if my invented quote were true -- he would probably have been talking about transportation, Colchicine trusted pharmacy reviews, Australia, uk, us, usa, and not just carriages).  Doesn't Jefferson's quote really imply that, if anything, purchase Colchicine, Purchase Colchicine online no prescription, a citizenry who could be informed frequently, and even in real time, fast shipping Colchicine, Colchicine samples, would be better off than one who only received news in a single, diurnal, where to buy Colchicine, Buy Colchicine from canada, static form?  To put it simply: wouldn't Jefferson have been in favor of ditching newspapers for online news.

I love newspapers.  Really, I do.  I love to buy the New York Times (yes, the printed one) at the airport or when I go to Starbucks on the weekend.  There is something really special about that experience.  I remember when I was little and visiting my grandparents across the country, my "duty" every morning was to bring the newspaper to my grandfather while he had his coffee in bed.  A retired Marine general, he loved to give my brother and me -- his "troops" -- special assignments.  I'll never forget that, BUY Colchicine ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION.

But that's it.  I love newspapers -- and will miss them when they disappear -- largely because of memories and habit.  Because until the last decade they were the only real source of text-based "current affairs" journalism.  Because that's the way it was, rx free Colchicine, Comprar en línea Colchicine, comprar Colchicine baratos, simple as that.  When I buy that newspaper today, I usually have already at least seen the headlines, real brand Colchicine online, Buying Colchicine online over the counter, if I haven't already read the story (or a more updated version of it!) online.  Why do I buy the paper?  Honestly, I don't know.  It just feels familiar and comfortable (and it's easy to read on an airplane), order Colchicine no prescription. Where can i buy Colchicine online, I would argue that the majority of those decrying the demise of the newspaper are largely making their arguments out of fear of losing that same familiarity and comfort.  Granted, there are a lot of people with their lives invested in the newspaper medium: those that help to design the paper layout, buy Colchicine from canada, Purchase Colchicine online, the printers, the delivery people, purchase Colchicine online no prescription, Buy Colchicine no prescription, the newsstand owners, etc.  A major advertising channel will also disappear with the medium, order Colchicine from mexican pharmacy, Colchicine over the counter, which of course poses a grave obstacle for the transition to online.  These are very real and important casualties of this evolution.  But we don't really hear arguments like that these days.  What we have instead are the reporters and editors who whine that the end of newspapers will spell the end of text-based journalism.  This is, in a word, kjøpe Colchicine på nett, köpa Colchicine online, Buy Colchicine online cod, false.

We can't confuse the medium of journalism with its mission.  The mission of journalism is to convey to people what is happening, rx free Colchicine, Colchicine samples, right?  How can anyone possibly think, then, buying Colchicine online over the counter, Purchase Colchicine, that the ability to send and receive information in real time will kill text-based journalism?  Newspaper companies shouldn't view the Internet as a competitor.  They should view it as their chance to evolve into a better iteration of themselves.

The argument against online news is that it will lack the funding and caliber of traditional news.  Let's break that down.

First of all, Colchicine from canadian pharmacy, an online news organization would not be nearly as costly as a print one.  Do you know how much it costs for the New York Times to print and deliver the newspapers themselves?  According to SAI, twice as much as it would to send every one of their subscribers an Amazon Kindle (retail: $360) for free.  Move online and you cut your costs enormously (of course, at the expense of lots of layoffs and lost investments as well).

"But what about news gathering expenses.  What about foreign bureaus and stuff like that?"  Does BUY Colchicine ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION, good journalism require overseas bureaus, as in the physical spaces?  Or even a multi-million dollar home headquarters?  Pre-internet newspaper journalism required this because you needed a place to file your article before the deadline, because face-to-face was the only way to have meetings, because the required equipment was too expensive to be owned and maintained personally.  You don't really need any of that now that you can write up the story on your laptop at home, e-mail it to your editor, and discuss it over the phone.  Hell, a random dude on a ferry in the Hudson, armed only with an iPhone, was able to provide live Twitter coverage (complete with pictures) of the rescue of 155 airplane passengers from a sinking jet.

In their op-ed, Swensen and Schmidt quote the following from a 2008 report by Sanford C. Bernstein & Company:

“The notion that the enormous cost of real news-gathering might be supported by the ad load of display advertising down the side of the page, or by the revenue share from having a Google search box in the corner of the page, or even by a 15-second teaser from Geico prior to a news clip, is idiotic on its face.”

And yet, a Guardian blogger reported less than two weeks earlier that "the editor of the Los Angeles Times, Russ Stanton, said the paper's online advertising revenue is now sufficient to cover the Times's entire editorial payroll, print and online."  Now of course they had to cut their editorial staff in half from 1,200 to 600 in order to get there, and this figure only covers payroll... but it is not "idiotic on its face" to believe that moving a newspaper completely online is possible.

"But news online will suck compared to printed news!"  Really?  I mean... really?  First of all, there are really good arguments about the quality of reporting only getting better when it goes online.  Second of all, who says that you really have to only publish the news that's "fit to print?"  Is that what the market is demanding?  Sure, you want to eventually end up with a complete and accurate picture of what happened.  But isn't there value in reporting what you know and building the story as you go?  This is basically what happens in the newsroom -- the story is built and factchecked slowly until it's ready to go to press.  Why not make this transparent and publish what you know when you know it?  As for editorial opinions, feature sections, op-ed columns, and all those other subjective and well thought-out analyses: those have value as well and won't just up and "disappear" with the transition to the online medium.  What are losing value are "news" stories in the printed newspaper.  By the time that paper is in your hands, most of the stories in it are stale and obsolete.

Listen, I'm realistic.  I know that no company can just boom! move online.  I know that not everyone can afford a computer or a Kindle to read their news online.  I know this is hard, for social and economic and cultural and inertial reasons.  The point of this rant is not to say this should happen now or that it will be painless.  But let's have that discussion and debate, and not toss out these half-baked, petty arguments about the Internet not being "good enough" for journalism and newspapers being the One Medium to Rule Them All.  The newspaper is not the last bastion of all that is holy and good about text journalism, as its defenders would have you believe.  What it is quickly becoming, though, is an anachronism.  Newspapers are a means to journalism, not an end.  To fight what the market is telling you and what consumers are demanding, and to attempt to "save" the newspaper medium out of some sort of "principle" and a belief  that the Internet cannot handle the serious business of the news -- that is what is "idiotic on its face."

Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of Flickr user Brooks Elliot..

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Published by Taylor on February 2, 2009 in Blogging, Computing, Culture, Facebook, Lifestyle, Privacy, Social Networks and Web 2.0. View Comments

Reader Jared (not Jarred) left a lengthy comment BUY Pyrantel Pamoate ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION, on my post about what I feel is our growing need and ability to create and share content.  In short: our attraction to social media.  I want to pull out what I think is the essence of Jared's concern, because it merits a more complete response:

Dig[ital] interconnectedness, to me, connotes an element of dystopic irony, a warning that we might not end up getting what we want out of this, and someday find that while social media was created and driven by a fundamental desire and longing for connection...it left that behind at some point in the past. Order Pyrantel Pamoate online c.o.d, [...]

The more data and content we create, the more noise, buy Pyrantel Pamoate online no prescription. Where can i buy cheapest Pyrantel Pamoate online, We keep finding more noise, more noise, Pyrantel Pamoate samples, Pyrantel Pamoate gel, ointment, cream, pill, spray, continuous-release, extended-release, more noise everywhere. White noise, Pyrantel Pamoate over the counter. Where can i find Pyrantel Pamoate online, [...]

It's good stuff, this Internet....as long as we know what we're getting ourselves into.


The issue of useless "white noise" comes up a lot.  The fact that the web is for all purposes infinite, where can i order Pyrantel Pamoate without prescription, Buy Pyrantel Pamoate no prescription, and the information online limitless, makes the idea of constant content creation by an ever-expanding group of people seem completely overwhelming.  "I can't even find time to read all the online articles in the NY Times every day" we think to ourselves; "My Google Reader is up to 4, buy Pyrantel Pamoate without prescription, Purchase Pyrantel Pamoate online no prescription, 000 unread items!  I don't need MORE content--I'm barely keeping up with what I've already chosen to follow!"

Questioning whether the social media we use and follow will allow us to connect and grow in meaningful ways is almost completely tied to the issue of noise.  After all, absent the noisy distractions that Jared describes, purchase Pyrantel Pamoate, Real brand Pyrantel Pamoate online, the Internet would be an incredibly useful place.  Anyone who skims through the comments section of any popular YouTube video (a phenomenon captured brilliantly by XKCD) understands the limits of the current social web: when everyone speaks with equal weight and access, a lot of useless and ignorant crap is published online, Pyrantel Pamoate from canadian pharmacy.

But let me argue that the proliferation and widespread adoption of social media--even in the midst of more noise--will be a good thing for a few reasons:


  1. There is a critical mass of participation in social media, beyond which filtering and the wisdom of crowds become significantly more powerful.  We're not there yet. I would argue that--with few exceptions--most iterations of the social web have enough commentors/content creators/reviewers for useless information to compete with important contributions, but do not (yet) benefit from the kind of widespread participation that makes filtering successful.  While more users/contributors bring with them more "noise," they also bring a level of activity that allows discerning consumers to filter more appropriately based on their needs.

  2. Approaching universal adoption of social media tools will create a more complete context for online reputations, BUY Pyrantel Pamoate ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION. Kjøpe Pyrantel Pamoate på nett, köpa Pyrantel Pamoate online, Reputation is the most powerful currency online; when any given person is writing a blog, using Facebook, buy Pyrantel Pamoate from mexico, Comprar en línea Pyrantel Pamoate, comprar Pyrantel Pamoate baratos, Twitter, Flickr, canada, mexico, india, Order Pyrantel Pamoate from mexican pharmacy, and rating movies on NetFlix, we have a better sense of a) whether that person is legitimately who they claim to be; and b) whether, order Pyrantel Pamoate from United States pharmacy, Order Pyrantel Pamoate online overnight delivery no prescription, based on their interests and preferences, we find their content worthy of our attention.


Those might sound a bit dense, order Pyrantel Pamoate no prescription, Japan, craiglist, ebay, overseas, paypal, so let's unpack a bit.  First, where to buy Pyrantel Pamoate, Buy cheap Pyrantel Pamoate no rx, the critical mass issue:

Living in a relatively small city, I often bemoan the fact that restaurant review sites (Yelp, buy Pyrantel Pamoate without a prescription, Buy Pyrantel Pamoate from canada, Urban Spoon, etc.) feature questionably up-to-date information on local restaurants and generally fewer than 2 user reviews per establishment.  New Yorkers face the opposite issue of an overwhelming abundance of reviews.  Whereas too little information is a difficult problem to solve, buy no prescription Pyrantel Pamoate online, Purchase Pyrantel Pamoate online, too much information is manageable in the sense that better and more accurate filters appear every day.

Take TripAdvisor, buying Pyrantel Pamoate online over the counter, Where can i buy Pyrantel Pamoate online, for example.  Sure, buy Pyrantel Pamoate online cod, Buy Pyrantel Pamoate without prescription, smaller hotels in more isolated locales suffer from a lack of reviews; but when I was planning my honeymoon I was astounded by the number and variety of informative reviews I found for resorts across the Caribbean.  As a result, filtering is more effective (though, comprar en línea Pyrantel Pamoate, comprar Pyrantel Pamoate baratos, Buy Pyrantel Pamoate without a prescription, I hasten to add, it could still improve immensely): I can view only the best and worst reviews of a particular resort, online buying Pyrantel Pamoate hcl, Pyrantel Pamoate over the counter, sort by date to find the most recent information, and filter by member rating to see only the views of trusted users (instead of folks with an axe to grind), Pyrantel Pamoate from canadian pharmacy. BUY Pyrantel Pamoate ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION, The social web isn't JUST about the volume of voices and user-generated content we're witnessing.  It's ultimately about high-quality, individualized information flowing to every consumer. Where to buy Pyrantel Pamoate,  What's more useful: all comments on a particular YouTube video, or only comments from users that I (or my friends) have deemed worth reading?  Restaurant reviews from anyone, purchase Pyrantel Pamoate online no prescription, Where can i buy cheapest Pyrantel Pamoate online, or reviews from users who also happen to like my favorite Indian restaurant and pizza place?  Scale makes these kinds of filters possible by using crowds and networks to identify trusted users, promoting their content ahead of the fray, Pyrantel Pamoate gel, ointment, cream, pill, spray, continuous-release, extended-release. Buy generic Pyrantel Pamoate, This gets to the reputation issue:

I sense that we're moving away from online anonymity and pseudonomymous interactions toward more transparency online.  I think this is happening because individuals have found that developing a personal brand (as much as I hate that phrase) online is a productive way of engaging on topics they care about, rx free Pyrantel Pamoate, Canada, mexico, india, building a career, interacting with networks, and reaping the benefits of the social web--benefits that largely accrue to trusted participants.  I fill in context for who I am and what I care about when I participate in social networks like Facebook, GoodReads, or LinkedIn; when I rate songs on Lala, movies on NetFlix, or restaurants on Yelp; and when I comment on blogs,  share items in Google Reader or write 140-character missives on Twitter.  The context I'm providing--and the vulnerability that comes with it--means that anyone reading my blog has a better sense that I am who I say I am and can identify where our interests overlap, BUY Pyrantel Pamoate ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION.

Writing a blog by itself, absent those other ways I engage in the social web, expands my network and creates chance interactions with people I otherwise would not have encountered or contacted out of the blue.  Imagine what happens when we grow the field of information we provide about ourselves--when we cease to see public content sharing and information disclosure (to a reasonable extent) as a threat and see it as an opportunity.  We'll discover, in greater force, the benefits of the social web: information that is tailored to our specific needs and preferences.

We've all encountered examples of people who share more information, openly and unapologetically, than we might personally deem appropriate.  Everyone will draw their own distinctions between information they prefer to keep private and information they're willing to broadcast to the world.   Where you draw the line is up to you.  But I hope you contribute to the "noise" because, if you've read this far, chances are I want to hear from you. (Call it my own filter.).

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Published by Taylor on January 26, 2009 in Culture, News and Politics. View Comments

cameraobama BUY Clindamycin ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION, If you had been in the crowd pictured here, at President Obama's Youth Inaugural Ball, would you have whipped out a digital camera to capture a shot of the first couple from among the mass of young people?  Would you have tried to snap a quick picture on your iPhone?  Texted your best friend?  Twittered frantically: "STANDING 30 FT FROM THE NEW PRES!!". Order Clindamycin online c.o.d, Blogged about it the next day?


Adam Frucci on Gizmodo had a strong reaction to this image:


"[E]veryone wants their own unique shot. Is this obsessive documentation worth it?

This is definitely something I've noticed a lot of lately: people are more interested in taking photos of something they're witnessing than actually, comprar en línea Clindamycin, comprar Clindamycin baratos, Where can i buy cheapest Clindamycin online, you know, witnessing it, Clindamycin samples. Rx free Clindamycin, These people are all looking at LCD screens instead of the new Presidential couple standing in front of them."


I too initially rolled my eyes at this trend.  But the more I think about it, the more I believe that what we're witnessing in this picture and in our lived experience is actually a reflection of how we've grown to...well...experience anything of significance.  And I'm not so sure it's a bad thing.., order Clindamycin from United States pharmacy. Australia, uk, us, usa, I'm not alone when I say that I'm guilty of this type of obsessive documentation: I'm quick to raise my Blackberry for a blurred picture of a favorite band, and my fiancee never met an event she didn't want to photograph.  There's certainly a touch of ego in our need to each capture our perspective on an event, where can i buy Clindamycin online, Where can i find Clindamycin online, even when it's completely irrational (how many professional photographers with cameras just a touch better than an iPhone or a point-and-shoot do you think were present at the Youth Ball?).  But I think blaming this phenomenon entirely on ego misses the point.  We, as a generation of web native and social media-fluent technophiles, buy Clindamycin from canada, Where to buy Clindamycin, are natural content creators and sharers...sometimes even to extremes that would not have been possible or attractive for other generations.

On Twitter, @christackett saw in the image of hundreds of young people with gadgets alight "some self-absorbtion," but also called it "an example of diginterconnectedness" (his word), and "citizen media" in the truest sense, BUY Clindamycin ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION.  That interconnectedness is what makes our online networks so exhilarating, buy no prescription Clindamycin online. Clindamycin trusted pharmacy reviews,  We live out experiences alongside, within, buy cheap Clindamycin no rx, Buy Clindamycin no prescription, and through our networks--living vicariously when we're the ones stuck at home; sharing the wealth when we find ourselves in the midst of news.  My initial groan at the sea of digital cameras in the image above was tempered by recalling how much I enjoying viewing inauguration photos from friends as they returned from DC.  Sure, none of my friends' pictures approached the rich detail of this 1, buy generic Clindamycin, Buy Clindamycin online no prescription, 470 megapixel panoramic image or the professional angles and global reach of these shots.  But what they did offer was a personal, intimate connection to the events that I didn't get from CNN or the New York Times, canada, mexico, india. Real brand Clindamycin online, The way we experience events in person is colored by our enjoyment of social media--as both creators and consumers.  Each of those attendees at the youth ball who shared some part of their experience online likely also engages on the web from the other side: viewing friends' pictures of college inauguration parties, reading blog reflections on the historic day...you get the idea.  That give and take feeds egos to be sure, Clindamycin from canadian pharmacy, Buy Clindamycin without a prescription, but it also builds a desire to share experiences and a feeling that we are in some way failing our "audience" if we neglect to capture an important moment.  Instead of staring in solitude at the new First Couple, each of these young people instictually wanted to share, fast shipping Clindamycin. Where can i order Clindamycin without prescription, We see in this image a group of people who seem disengaged and distant from the events unfolding before their eyes.  But what's missing in the photo are the crowds of Facebook friends, blog readers, ordering Clindamycin online, Buy Clindamycin without prescription, and email recipients who will benefit from the pictures captured on each of those glowing gadgets, text messages sent in the midst of history, Clindamycin for sale, Online buying Clindamycin hcl, and stories recounted on laptops moments later.  Sharing those images or words with their networks will bring joy to the ball attendees.  Each of their distant friends, readers, buy no prescription Clindamycin online, Online buy Clindamycin without a prescription, and followers will feel more involved, more included, buying Clindamycin online over the counter, Canada, mexico, india, and more a part of something in turn.  And isn't that what this whole web thing is really about.

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Published by Jarred on January 14, 2009 in Book Reviews, Consumer Behavior, Culture, Search, Social Networks, Sociology and Web 2.0. View Comments

BUY Betnovate ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION, About a year ago, I wrote that I had received a book for Christmas called The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr.  I'm a little embarrassed to say that it was only two weeks ago, on my post-holiday flight back to California, that I finally finished it after ten months of letting it collect dust. Ordering Betnovate online, Carr's attitude about the rise of cloud computing, social networking, where to buy Betnovate, Fast shipping Betnovate, and all the other web 2.0 buzztrends caught me off guard.  While he seems to marvel at and mostly celebrate the speed and scale at which this phenomenon has grown and subsequently become integral to modern life, he does so with a very cautionary and sometimes pessimistic tone.  I guess I should have expected as much after reading his piece in the Atlantic last summer (hat tip to Joel for passing it along) called "Is Google Making Us Stupid?".  Though I don't share all of his concerns, Betnovate gel, ointment, cream, pill, spray, continuous-release, extended-release, Buy Betnovate from mexico, it is refreshing to find a voice like his among the generally over-enthusiastic technorati (myself included).

Carr highlights a particularly interesting threat in the chapter he titles "The Great Unbundling."  While granting that the jubilation over the democratizing and barrier-lowering nature of the Internet is mostly well deserved, Betnovate trusted pharmacy reviews, Real brand Betnovate online, he also warns that these characteristics come with potential harm.  What harm?  In short, Carr argues that the speed and personalization offered by the Internet facilitate our natural human tendency to cluster into isolated groups that can deafen and blind us to differing opinions, order Betnovate online c.o.d. Betnovate over the counter, Carr's main evidence is an experiment conducted in 1971 by a Nobel Prize winning economist named Thomas Schelling.  The experiment consisted of a grid of squares and a set of white and black markers.  After randomly distributing these markers to represent an "integrated" community, he moved the markers around based on the rule that no one marker could have more than 50% of its immediate neighbors be of the opposite color.  This rule, order Betnovate no prescription, Betnovate for sale, Schelling posited, mirrored a natural instinct that humans possess: to be closer to people similar to ourselves than we are to those who are different.  After moving pieces one at a time based on this rule, online buying Betnovate hcl, Buy generic Betnovate, he ended up with one all-white cluster and one all-black cluster.  Self-segregation, Schelling concluded, Betnovate price, coupon, Order Betnovate from mexican pharmacy, is the natural result of our instinctual preference to be closer to those that resemble us than to those who differ from us.

Extrapolating from these results, where to buy Betnovate, Purchase Betnovate online, Carr hypothesizes that because the Internet removes so much friction from the market for information, self-segregation will happen much more quickly and completely online than, order Betnovate from United States pharmacy, Kjøpe Betnovate på nett, köpa Betnovate online, say, in a once-integrated neighborhood that slowly segregates over many years into two or more distinct socioeconomic or racial groups.  In my opinion, where can i buy Betnovate online, Buy cheap Betnovate no rx, however, his interpretation of Schelling's experiment, order Betnovate online c.o.d, Betnovate over the counter, and his application of it to the Web, is flawed from the start, buy Betnovate without prescription.

First of all, Schelling assumes we have a preference that "50% or more" of our "neighbors" be more like us than different from us.  Can we trust this initial assumption?  I don't contest that it's only human to feel more comfortable when we're surrounded by people like us.  But does comfort level always translate into preference?  Perhaps sometimes or often, but can we say this is categorically true, BUY Betnovate ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION. Fast shipping Betnovate, What of those who make a point, out of an intellectual or moral or other conviction, Betnovate samples, Betnovate gel, ointment, cream, pill, spray, continuous-release, extended-release, to surround themselves with people who are different and disagree with them?  We are not lab rats, after all; we're people.  And who is to say that the number is 50%?  What would the results of the experiment have been if that figure was 40%?  20%?  Or what if there were three colors?  Or thirteen?  I haven't done enough research to see if Schelling iterated on his experiment with different rules and variables; but even if he did, online buy Betnovate without a prescription, Kjøpe Betnovate på nett, köpa Betnovate online, Carr certainly does not mention it.

My second critique of Carr's interpretation of Schelling's experiment is his confusing of physical proximity with what I'll call intellectual proximity.  It's one thing to have a desire to live, real brand Betnovate online, Order Betnovate from mexican pharmacy, work, and learn in the same physical region as others like us; but does this supposed bias necessarily have an intellectual parallel?  Again, buying Betnovate online over the counter, Purchase Betnovate online no prescription, I do not deny that, anecdotally, Betnovate for sale, Where can i buy cheapest Betnovate online, it seems to be a human tendency to read and watch and converse with those who are of the same mind as us.  But who is to say this is a systematic preference?  Again, what of those who resolve to immerse themselves in opposing viewpoints in order, where to buy Betnovate, Betnovate from canadian pharmacy, say, to challenge and strengthen their own, where can i buy Betnovate online. Buy cheap Betnovate, Carr is also particularly troubled by the rising trend of "personalization algorithms and filters" that seek to "understand" us and deliver to us the information that they think we "want."  Take the recommendation services of Netflix, Amazon, order Betnovate from United States pharmacy, Betnovate trusted pharmacy reviews, or iTunes as examples; these companies take your purchase and browsing histories, run them through complex mathematical formulas and models, buy Betnovate from mexico, Online buying Betnovate hcl, and suggest products that it thinks you will enjoy.  The longer we use these services, the better they can build a detailed "profile" about us, canada, mexico, india, Purchase Betnovate, and the more accurately they can assess, target, and satisfy our specific interests.  Carr notes, however, that this could lead to a disturbing snowball effect of recommendations-feeding-consumption-feeding-recommendations that isolate us within our own interests.  The recommendations are based on history, but who is to say that our history is always the best indication of our current or future desires.

All of these fears assume that humans do not have the mental presence or rigor to ensure that we provide ourselves with a healthy intellectual diversity in the face of recommended or automated personalization.  Like in Schelling's experiment, it is assumed that we are merely complex machines that react to stimuli in a pre-determined way.  I have more faith in humanity than that.  This is not to say that there is not ample evidence to support fears of cybersegregation.  We saw it in the presidential election last year, for example, with e-mails being circulated among ultra-conservative communities suggesting that Barack Obama is a Muslim or even a terrorist, reinforcing a dangerous groupthink that ignored the widely publicized truth.  We -- as humans but especially as Americans -- are often lazy when it comes to fully exploring every facet of a situation.

But the hypothesis that the trend towards personalization and filtering could lead us all into -- as Carr puts it -- "cultural impoverishment and social fragmentation" seems a little far fetched.  While we might indeed have a tendency to congregate physically and mentally with those who resemble us, I believe that there is also a natural human inquisitiveness and skepticism that will prevail.  At some point, echo chambers always harmonize to such a precise frequency that at least one member will start to think it's too good to be true, and they will seek new sources of information, and the cycle will shatter.

Though this natural inquisitiveness or skepticism may not always prevail on the individual level, I believe it will almost always end up happening on the community level.  Especially in democratic societies, there will always be individuals and groups who make it their mission to make sure that opposing points are heard and considered.  This, after all, is one of the benefits of freedom of speech and thre free press, and is another reason that while newspapers may die, I don't think professional journalism ever will.  Carr also never mentions the boon that online communication brings to the forging and solidifying of groups that do good in our world, such as those organizations that focus on the environment or social justice or philanthropy.  While it is important to constantly seek the truth, I think it is also important and healthy to find and reinforce one's identity within a community of truth-seekers.  The web facilitates our ability to do just that.

And so I arrive at my normal conclusion for debates like these.  Moderation.  Is.  Key.  Personalization and filtering are awesome features with epic potential for helping us discover more about the things we're interested in.  And though I think our nature will never lead us to that point, I believe it would be a grand mistake for us to completely outsource our judgment of our own desires and preferences to machines.  Our ability to decide for ourselves what we like -- and what we think is the truth -- is part of what makes us human, after all.

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Published by Jarred on December 17, 2008 in Careers and Culture. View Comments

Chris Anderson BUY Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION, , editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, gave an interesting piece of advice on his blog last night: "Do something new every three years." He writes:

For the first ten years of my career, I changed jobs every three years. Then, Buying Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil online over the counter, for the seven years I was at The Economist, I changed countries every three years (London, Hong Kong, where to buy Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil, and New York, Where can i buy cheapest Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil online, although sadly not long enough at the last). Here at Wired, I seem to have achieved the same rhythm by publishing a book after my fifth year and, buy Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil online no prescription, next summer, Buy no prescription Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil online, my eighth. Each time it changes my life and puts me back on a steep learning curve with a new subject to immerse in and a new pace of travel and speaking. I've got a new foreign land to explore.

Anderson goes on to tie his "three and flee" advice (my words) to a theory advanced by Malcolm Gladwell in his new book Outliers: that it takes about 10, Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil gel, ointment, cream, pill, spray, continuous-release, extended-release,000 hours of disciplined application to something to create a true master.  In an excerpt from the book provided by The Guardian, Rx free Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil, Gladwell writes:
This idea - that excellence at a complex task requires a critical, minimum level of practice - surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is a magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours, BUY Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION.

"In study after study, buy cheap Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil, of composers, Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil samples, basketball players, fiction writers, ice-skaters, kjøpe Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil på nett, köpa Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil online, concert pianists, Buy Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil from canada, chess players, master criminals," writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin, purchase Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil, "this number comes up again and again. Buy Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil from mexico, Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years.., order Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil from United States pharmacy. No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. Buy cheap Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil no rx, It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery."


Though I appreciate the unique insight he brings to interesting subjects -- and I'll also admit I haven't yet read Outliers -- I've always been slightly skeptical of Gladwell's reductionist theories (see also: Thomas Friedman's Flexible Deadlines and the F.U.).  My skepticism aside, Anderson calculates that (60 hours/week) x (50 weeks/year) x (3 years) = (a little under 10,000 hours).  And so, buy no prescription Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil online, according to rough Gladwellian-Andersonian metrics, Where to buy Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil, if you work your butt off for a little over three years, you can consider yourself a master in your field. BUY Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION, Having done that, Anderson writes: "Great. Now go do something else."

Let's say that you are actually able to become an expert under Anderson's three-year model, order Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil online overnight delivery no prescription, and that you do decide to move on after that.  Isn't that, Purchase Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil online, with all due respect, a little selfish?  Wasteful, even?  You work 60 hour weeks for three years to become an expert, where can i order Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil without prescription, accumulating a rare wealth of knowledge about something that only a select number of people in the world possess... Japan, craiglist, ebay, overseas, paypal, and you just move on.

It's important to point out that while, under Malcolm Gladwell's theory, buy Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil online cod, the total amount of "dedicated application" is 10, Buy Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil online no prescription, 000 hours, all of the examples that he and his sources cite show that those hours were accumulated over roughly one decade of total elapsed time.  Between Anderson's model and Gladwell's theory, there's a seven year differential, buy Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil no prescription.

This is not insignificant, Online buy Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil without a prescription, and I'll tell you why.  Something important happens in those seven years: space.  Space to think.  To draw connections.  To apply.  To challenge.  To be wrong.  To re-visit and re-think things.  To win.  To rest.  To breathe.  To enjoy.  To teach.  To give back.  To lead.

Let's take a look at Professor Lawrence Lessig.  To me, he represents the perfect model for recognizing when you have truly reached black belt expertise; for understanding that the marginal return of one more year of effort no longer outweighs the opportunity cost of applying oneself to something new; and for having the clarity of mind and courage to make the switch, BUY Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil ONLINE NO PRESCRIPTION.

Larry Lessig is one of most important thinkers at the intersection of technology and intellectual property.  He co-founded the Creative Commons (under which this blog is licensed, and under the licenses of which we use the photos used in all our posts).  He was named one of Scientific American's Top 50 Visionaries in 2002 for his work in the field.  After mastering the material early in his career, Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil over the counter, he went on to teach it, Buying Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil online over the counter, to lead a movement about it, to create something bigger: in short, to give back.  In June 2007, real brand Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil online, he announced that after ten years (*cough*) of mastery and activism, Purchase Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil, he would be shifting focus and dedicating the next ten years to becoming an expert on the subject of, and advocating against, corruption.  He came, buy Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil without prescription, he learned, Order Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil from mexican pharmacy, he mastered, he gave back, and then (and only then) he moved on, where can i buy cheapest Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil online.

Anderson wrote his post with good intentions.  He wants to encourage us to keep fresh perspective on the world and to always be trying new things.  And, Canada, mexico, india, I imagine, he sees a benefit in spreading mind power across a great number of subject matters instead of just one.  But for me, and I suspect for many members of my generation, where to buy Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil, his advice falls on deaf -- and maybe even astounded -- ears.  Three years?  Doing one thing?  Dude, Buy Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil from canada, that's like, forever!  We are the generation of speed, of having anything and everything at our fingertips.  Our resumes reveal our hyperextension across all sorts of sports, buy Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil without a prescription, clubs, Buy cheap Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil, and other high school and college organizations.  We've had different jobs every summer, we've spent semesters abroad, and we've been taught since the day we could talk to always be preparing and marketing ourselves for tomorrow, Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil samples, for the Next Big Thing.  If there's anything we know how to do well, Buy Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil from mexico, it's how to equip ourselves to move onwards and upwards.

But what about the Right Now?  What about taking what we're good at and applying it beyond ourselves, instead of constantly applying it to move ourselves?  Why work so hard for three years and become a master, comprar en línea Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil, comprar Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil baratos, only to wrap it up and move on?  There's something about taking expertise and applying it that is so rewarding, Purchase Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil online no prescription, but I'm afraid for myself and for my peers that we'll be too impatient to make it happen.  I'm afraid that we'll be too impatient to invest ourselves, our families, and our careers in a movement or an idea for the long haul, Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil gel, ointment, cream, pill, spray, continuous-release, extended-release.

A final example: my father's father, Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil price, coupon, George Peach Taylor, who passed away last week.  It's funny (and frustrating) that sometimes we don't appreciate how objectively amazing those whom we love really are, until they are no longer here.  I encourage you to follow the link and read the full details of his life.  From representing plaintiffs in a landmark U.S, fast shipping Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil. Supreme Court decision that led to the "one man - one vote" principle; to moving his wife and four young children to Africa when he joined the Peace Corps; to training law students effective trial advocacy skills; to serving as a Public Defender and representing indigent prisoners -- my grandfather dedicated himself to fighting for those who couldn't fight for themselves.  He dedicated his whole life to true justice.  He certainly could have used any of those credentials to run for political office, Online buying Viagra (Pfizer) Sildenafil hcl, or to become a partner in a big city firm, or to do any number of things.  But he did not.  Instead of reaping what could have been enormous personal advancements, he just kept on sowing.

I have many friends, and know of many people my age, who plan to do (and are doing) the same thing as my grandfather.  But I am concerned, in this career-driven, me-me-me, more-more-more, what's-next-for-me culture that my generation lives in, that too many of us will never slow down to apply our gifts to something bigger than ourselves.  I don't worry that my generation will become masters of amazing things but fail to keep a fresh perspective.  I worry that my generation will become masters of amazing things, but fail to sit still long enough to use that expertise to do good in the world.

And I'm at the top of my list.

Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of Flickr user Squirmelia.

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