Funny what can happen with quotes. Reading Chris Anderson’s latest book Free: The Future of a Radical Price I came across his version of the now-famous line “the information wants to be free” – often used to define the digital era. The author of this line is Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalogue, [...]
IKEA, I heard recently, has announced plans to expand its already-vast store in Richmond B.C. Business is booming. I learned some intriguing things about the company while reading Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture this week. The author, Ellen Ruppel Shell, takes a close look at the massive retailer in this 2009 book about [...]
I had a word with my accountant yesterday. He said was slowly recovering from Tax Time. He spoke darkly about the rush he deals with every year and humans’ ingrained propensity to procrastinate. He would know! Procrastination is addressed – and studied – in Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions, an entrancing [...]
Maybe I’m missing something but is this guy ever cranky. Andrew Keen, in Cult of the Amateur, is in a permanently bad mood. He’s mad at citizen journalists, anyone who contributes to Wikipedia, anyone who reads Wikipedia, Second Life, craigslist… just Web 2.0 all ‘round. I worked my way through the book (published in 2007 [...]