“Facebook is struggling to increase its ad revenue. But the social network also has more than a billion members. If you argue that such a network of people (and the data they upload) doesn’t constitute a valuable thing on its own, you haven’t understood the impact of the digital revolution.”
Category: ideas
‘My Job Is About Building Stuff:’ #UpgoerFive Challenges Jargon
“Enforced avoidance of jargon brings benefits, and some of the authors who have tried the ‘ten hundred words’ approach have delivered some beautiful, clear prose which would definitely have Big Brother rethinking his strategy. Double plus good.”
Kickstarter Loves Games And Movies, The Numbers Say
Want to get funded on crowdsource big name Kickstarter? Your best chance comes if you’re making a game – and second best is making a movie. (Dance … er. Maybe you could try funding a movie about dance?)
Good Bookstores Don’t Make Money, So We Should Give Money To Them
“While these shops might break even, in some cases turn a small profit, it is only because their customers override their instinct to act like consumers and act like good citizens instead.”
The Power Of Reticence
Should writers and other artists just back off on the reveal-all memoir? Poet Sharon Olds might say yes.
Time For A U.S. Secretary Of Culture?
One critic calls for abolishing the NEA and the NEH – and putting Peter Sellars (for example) on the Cabinet.
Paying For The ‘Friendship’ Of An Arts Institution: Worth It?
“Friend of the arts” schemes are easy to run and easy to administer, and the wealthy love ’em – but they may lead to boxing out the general public.
The Football Star And His Made-Up Relationship (It’s The Internet’s Fault)
“The Internet is the cause of much of today’s commitment-free, surface-only living; it’s also the explanation for why someone could tumble head-over-heels for a pixelated cipher.”
Do Humans Have A Biological Stopwatch? Maybe More Than One
“That might explain why we perceive time as moving forward, but it fails to account for why we often perceive time moving at varying speeds. Why does it speed up when we’re having fun, but slow down when we’re bored? Most of us are fairly good at measuring short time intervals – seconds, minutes – but neuroscientists aren’t sure how we do it.”
Why Time is a Social Construct
“We measure time not simply in terms of minutes and seconds, but in terms of concepts such as ‘early’, ‘late’ – or, for that matter, ‘fashionably late.’ What is the length of a ‘work day’? In the United States, Europe and Japan you’ll get three different answers.”