I was in the Berkshires for the last three days and all the rain meant I had lots of reading time. In addition to finally finishing Wisdom of Crowds, I printed out a small book of articles, etc. that I had been meaning to catch up on. Lucky for you, I'm caught up and now it's your turn:
- Why Religion Must End: Sam Harris is an atheist who says things like, "On the subject of religious belief, we relax standards of reasonableness and evidence that we rely on in every other area of our lives. We relax so totally that people believe the most ludicrous propositions, and are willing to organize their lives around them."
- Communicating Complex Ideas: A big part of Wisdom of Crowds is some discussion of prediction markets. This article is an examination of the IA behind good online versions.
- What Goes Down Drain Eventually Bobs Up Here: For everyone that has ever wondered what happens when you flush a New York City toilet.
- The New Bazooka Joe: Apparently Bazooka Joe comics aren't doing so hot. They're trying to revive them because the "comics that come wrapped around the gum weren’t funny to anyone born after 1962." Example: "Jane says to Joe: 'I made this cake myself, Joe!' -- Joe: 'Jane, this cake tastes awful!' -- Jane: 'Oh, yeah! Smarty! The cookbook says it’s delicious!' . . . Definitely not funny.
- Top Designer Says World Cup Design "Just Embarrassing": Erik Spiekermann, famous German designer, kills on the logo and the rest of the design for the World Cup.
- Long Tail's Tribe: Time Magazine jumps on the long tail bandwagon. (On a separate note, the book comes out soon.)
- Unconscious Interface Design: "Basically, unconscious design is design where there is no 'conversation with the situation'. Sometimes we make design decisions based out of habit; we are simply following the norm; or we just never asked ourselves 'Why?'. Every design decision we make should involve us having a “conversation with the situation 'if we wish to break free of unconscious design.'"
- Google Launches ValueClick Killer: Apparently Google is launching a CPA (cost-per-action) network. World domination is soon to follow.
- The Top 10 Questions Investors Asked Us: The people at Particletree were kind enough to share their insight into VC interviews.
- The N.B.A. Draft: Now for Grown-Ups Only!: Chuck Klosterman is really happy high school kids won't be drafted anymore because it means he can watch the draft again.
- Cybergreen: An interview with the ever-interesting Bruce Sterling.
- Design. Architecture. Football.: Yet another fantastic cityofsound article. Choice quote: "It's the call-and-response tension between these forces that makes the game at the highest level so thrilling. And it's this tension which is reminiscent of adaptive design ideas discussed here previously; that design isn't the end of the process, but the beginning; that interpretation and improvisation will define the end-product, not the original design - in architecture, in music, in football."
- The Attention Economy: Not sure how I missed this, but its Umair Haque's fantastic writeup on attention.
Well, that's it. There should be plenty to read for the next day or so. As always, I highly recommend subscribing to the sidenotes.