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Chris Anderson and Wired manipulate facts to forward their theories with whatever new theory and bandwagon they are jumping on. The data cited in 'The Long Tai
by bl4k 16y ago
Chris Anderson and Wired manipulate facts to forward their theories with whatever new theory and bandwagon they are jumping on.
The data cited in 'The Long Tail' was not accurate[1], and actually supported the counter-argument. 'Free' was similarly vague[2] and inaccurate[3].
The entire m.o of Anderson seems to be to take a concept or theory that sounds interesting and package it in laymans terms for a gullible public. It is presented as 'research' or a 'breakthrough' and most average readers suck it up, but these theories are usually far from.
To see them doing it again with this latest theory is no surprise. Anderson really doesn't let the truth get in the way of a good story, especially when there are magazines and books to sell, and high-priced speaking gigs to book.
(see also the excellent: http://dashes.com/anil/2009/07/free-criticism-and-science-without-data.html http://dashes.com/anil/2009/07/free-criticism-and-science-wi...)
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail#Criticism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail#Criticism
[2] http://compassioninpolitics.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/criticism-of-chris-andersons-free/#comment-3630 http://compassioninpolitics.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/critici...
[3] http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2009/07/06/090706crbo_books_gladwell http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2009/07/06/09070...
- jonknee 16y agotl;dr Chris Anderson is like a less convincing Malcom Gladwell.
- kmfrk 16y agoFree also ran into some nasty plagiarism accusations: http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2009/06/24/the-chris-anderson-plagiarism-controversy/ http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2009/06/24/the-chris-anderson....
- davidw 16y agoPart of the reason behind Squeezed Books (which I recently sold on) was to 'deflate' books like that. Why buy something that's just a fad and can be summed up in a page or two.
- jacquesm 16y agoFor some reason Squeezed Books sounds like a more modern version of Readers Digest. What could possibly be lost by reducing 'War and Peace' to a 20 page summary?
- davidw 16y agoSqueezed Books is only for business books, which are inflated in the first place in many cases: they could be restated in a few pages if you take out all the case studies and repetition of the Key Points and so on and so forth. Even if it's a novel, good idea, you can't sell a 10 page book, so they have to add enough stuffing until it's big enough to sell as a book.
- napierzaza 16y agoThey should have some sort of equivalent App Store for ideas. YOu pay 5$ and a file is downloaded to your computer. You open it up and it says "Have a list of stuff to do, review it daily in the morning, act on it during the day. Be organized." The big issue is that speaking tours would be pretty much out of the question.
- davidw 16y agoIn economics, ideas are an interesting category of product. They're fairly difficult to exclude people from - you can't "sell" an idea to 1000 people and not expect to see it spread, if it's good. They're often quite non-rivalrous, too, although the right one at the right time might mean that one person gets the most benefit from it.
- jseliger 16y agoWhat could possibly be lost by reducing 'War and Peace' to a 20 page summary? I suspect that nonfiction is often more palatable to summarization than fiction because its main purpose is to convey facts. I don't think it's a coincidence that so many books start as magazine articles but then don't quite have enough material to sustain 200 pages of information. This is part of my problem with The Shallows: http://jseliger.com/2010/06/28/the-shallows-what-the-internet-is-doing-to-our-brains-nicholar-carr/ http://jseliger.com/2010/06/28/the-shallows-what-the-interne... , Rapt: http://jseliger.com/2009/08/16/rapt-attention-and-the-focused-life-%E2%80%94-winifred-gallagher/ http://jseliger.com/2009/08/16/rapt-attention-and-the-focuse... and some other books.