The rise of self-publishing
I've spent the last few weeks working on a book proposal around contemplative computing. It's been a great, absorbing experience, so naturally an article on the growing respectability
Raymond Tallis on “neuromania”
One of my favorite books is Raymond Tallis' The Hand. (Tallis is an MD and prolific author, and as his Web site shows, really knows how to accessorize.)
Contemplation, a room of one’s own, and serendipity
A couple weeks ago, during a visit to a wonderful little bookshop in Ely, I picked up a copy of Virigina Woolf's A Room of One's Own. My
Csikszentmihalyi on memory and flow
From Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow: All forms of mental flow depend on memory, either directly or indirectly. (121)... As far back as there are records of human intelligence, the
The literary undergrowl of the old regime*
When I first got into arguments about “what the Web is doing to our culture and our brains,” I was manging editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. It was
Reading and contemplation
I've seen this in two recent essays. First, David Ulin, in a widely-circulated essay on "The Lost Art of Reading," which draws a link between reading and contemplation. He
Hamlet’s Blackberry
A few weeks ago I read William Powers' book Hamlet's Blackberry, but with the move and everything couldn't really write much about it. Still, it's worth noting. Powers'
Wading into The Shallows
Yesterday I read Nicholas Carr's The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read, and Remember. Frankly, I was prepared to severely dislike it– his
Review of Steven Johnson, “Where Good Ideas Comes From”
My review of Steven Johnson’s new book, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, is now available on the Los Angeles Times Web site. (Interestingly