Why you, first-time author, need a literary agent
I had a long call today with a friend who’s just finished a book and wanted some advice about literary agents. I’ve gotten this question a couple times,
Journeyman + 20
Twenty years ago I published an essay on the psychological and practical aspects of leaving academia. I had recently moved from U.C. Davis to Chicago and a job at Encyclopedia
Why is scientific sexism so intractably resistant to reform? | Aeon Essays
Science writer Margaret Wertheim writes about sexism in science. One of the many lines that lines struck me: I think about all the young women now being forced
Copy edits!
Just got these in the mail…. via flickr Very exciting, in the way that only a vanishingly small number of grinding, attention-demanding tasks can be.
Quote of the Day: Nassim Taleb
"We practitioners and quants aren't too fazed by remarks on the part of academics – it would be like prostitutes listening to technical commentary by nuns." (From his
“Articles and ideas are only as good as the fees you can get for talking about them.”
The one problem with writing a book for users, taking a Buddhist-inflected approach to information technologies that emphasizes how people can take back control of their minds, is
Academic publishing “is pure rentier capitalism”
George Monbiot calls publishers like Elsevier and Springer "the most ruthless capitalists in the Western world": What we see here is pure rentier capitalism: monopolising a public resource
Great Michael Lewis piece on luck
Michael Lewis' Princeton commencement address is terrific. After the obligatory opening joke ("Members of the Princeton Class of 2012. Give yourself a round of applause. The next time you
Shortening grad school completion times
Inside Higher Ed has yet another in the never-ending series of "rethinking the humanities Ph.D." articles. But for once, it's not just about "rethinking" (which too often is
“Considered from intellectual, political, and administrative perspectives,” humanities reform proposals “are wrongheaded and ill-timed”
I'm going to blow through this quickly, so I can get back to real stuff, but I couldn't let this awfulness go unremarked: Gary Olson's latest essay in