Words

I’ve always enjoyed reading, writing, and observing how our rapidly accelerating (and disturbingly alienated) culture shares knowledge through printed word. Once upon a time I believed I would be a professional writer; somewhere along the road, I became content to write to myself (and anyone else who’ll listen), and to make money elsewhere.

Words On This Site

  1. From Russia With Love: An online journal (pre-blog) that I kept while studying abroad in Russia.
  2. Primary Source articles: Everything I wrote for The Primary Source, a political journal at Tufts University.
  3. Favorite Quotations: A few things I’ve collected over time.
  4. Tom Raymond’s Manifesto: Brilliant ideas on how to repair a private school’s broken disciplinary system.

Other Things You Should Read

  1. Techdirt: On The Constitutional Reasons Behind Copyright And Patents: An insightful and probing look into the Constitution and its role in establishing (and limiting) a legal basis for intellectual property in the United States.
  2. How America Lost the War on Drugs: After Thirty-Five Years and $500 Billion, Drugs Are as Cheap and Plentiful as Ever: An Anatomy of a Failure.
  3. Scientific American: The Secret to Raising Smart Kids: Hint: Don't tell your kids that they are. More than three decades of research shows that a focus on effort—not on intelligence or ability—is key to success in school and in life
  4. Why Is Hollywood Making A Sequel To The Napster Wars?: Shutting down Napster led to the collapse of the entire recording industry. Now, movie and TV studios are looking to repeat the failure.
  5. Paul Graham: Stuff
  6. Fascist America, in 10 easy steps: A recipe for a totalitarian America in the 21st century.
  7. Patenting Life by Michael Crichton: You, or someone you love, may die because of a gene patent that should never have been granted in the first place.
  8. The House Beyond Your Sky, by Benjamin Rosenbaum: "Matthias knows he should not meddle. But today his heart is troubled. Today, in the world outside the library, a pilgrim is heralded. A pilgrim is coming to visit Matthias, the first in a very long time."
  9. The Illustrated Guide To Breaking Your Computer: Partition your hard drive (literally).
  10. The Life of the Cosmos: A challenging view of the universe that the laws of nature may themselves be subject to natural selection.
  11. The Puzzle of Micromanaging Managers: When we bog senior staff down with mind-numbing procedures, we clearly aren't giving them the trust and support they deserve.
  12. The Alice and Bob After Dinner Speech: Over the years Alice and Bob have tried to defraud insurance companies, they've played poker for high stakes by mail, and they've exchanged secret messages over tapped telephones.
  13. Patently Absurd (Forbes.com): Too many patents are just as bad for society as too few.
  14. Legal Affairs: The Copyright Cage: Copyright law needs to change before America can regain its status as an innovator.
  15. Orson Scott Card: MP3s Are Not the Devil: A writer weighs in against the music industry's business practices.
  16. The Rise of Complex Terrorism: The infrastructure of our society is more vulnerable than we might think.
  17. Harvesting Poverty: The Rigged Trade Game: Western farm subsidies are devastating the world's poorest economies.
  18. The Primary Source Online (web.archive.org): The last archived copy of the web site, as it was.
  19. Great Mistakes in Technical Leadership: I wish somebody had pointed this out to me two years ago.
  20. Software Development's Evolution towards Product Design: How to make great products for happy customers.
  21. A lost interview with ENIAC co-inventor J. Presper Eckert: "Mauchley thought the world would need maybe six computers."