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| Friday, March 1, 2002 |
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2 deep 4 me 
| | By ignoring dopamine, a neurotransmitter linked to the brain chemistry of pleasure, economists have followed a tradition of avoiding the deeper questions connected with human happiness, in order to concentrate on more manageable problems. This tradition goes back to when the profession wisely chose to steer clear of Jeremy Bentham's quixotic quest for the exact measurement of pleasure and pain. Economists approach the psychology of pleasure with humility, parsimony and circumspection |
| | Kevin likes it, so it's gotta be good. |
Here's the plan. Every blogger buys their next album and guarantees the dudes a Grammy.
| | I've had some fun times remembering Firesign riffs with Steve Gillmor, who had a connection to the group back in one of his former careers. ("Nick Danger, Third Eye... More Science vs. Commie Martyrs High School... Everything you know is wrong — a line that directly led, for me at least, to Cluetrain) |
| | Then yesterday I mentioned that KPFK radio launched Firesign Theater, not quite sure if I was using the right verb. And who should come back with an answer but Phil Austin, one of the Fire Four himself. What a blessed hoot. |
| | I hate to confess that I haven't kept up with the guys for a long time. Turns out they just missed out on their third Grammy, for the Bride of Firesign album, which I just bought. |
| | Another confession: my nickname is the fossil remnant of "Doctor Dave," my radio persona from back when I was having way too much fun in the Seventies, at WDBS in Durham, North Carolina. What Doctor Dave did (all too briefly and to a tiny fraction of the effect) was pretty much the kind of stuff the Firesign guys did at KPFK. And, in a bit too sober (and far less funny) a way, that's what I'm doing now, here. |
| | And it still beats the shit out of work. |
See? Didn't need to raise the bridge anyway.
| | Thanks for the link to my friend Chuck, who needs to start his own blog. (Hint, hint.) |
Proof that not all big old print magazines suck at pixels
So I'm just being a lazy bastard
| | Eric Norlin compliments my taglines, which I think of as headlines. Or subheads. In fact most of the time they're punchlines in the manner of Esquire's Dubious Achievement Awards. Frankly, I lifted the style. Surprised nobody noticed yet. |
| | Another dirty not-so-secret is that in advertising a great tagline can save you a lot of pointless copywriting work. And I got a lot of training at that. |
Bleverage
| | Kind of cool, isn't it, when we overthrow capitalism with CAPITALISM, as evenly-armed competitors in a formerly one-sided contest? |
| | His blog is fulcrum and his blogrolling list is "A Plague of Blogs," which made me laugh so hard a few minutes ago that I may have awakened neighbors. |
| | And why fulcrum is now on the list to the right. |
Reading the bubbles on the surface of the water
| | Craig: As an optimist, I always think it is never too late. But to date, Novell is like the Latin America of Software Companies: the leadership is more interested in lining their own pockets than creating a long term strategy for a country capable of holding its own. |
Links speak louder than blurbs
| | Speaking of RB, he also points us to Hell.com. Go there. |
Biting the hand that muzzles you
| | Michael Wolff (of Burn Rate fame) is the media columnist at New York Magazine, and an enviably artful writer. In his latest, Spread Thin, he paints a very ugly Big Picture. Here's one part of it: |
| | And then there's the media. Certainly the media has romanticized the business culture and retailed all those bogus press releases, as well as done what the media always does in the presence of a new Zeitgeist -- embrace it and seek to be part of it (media people are most often late getting to the Zeitgeist, so when they do finally get to it, they doubly embrace it). A recent example was the Davos conference, the Woodstock of the business culture, held last month in New York (after having been expelled from Davos, Switzerland). Lavish media attention was given to the conference (the Times treated it like a major-political-party convention), which almost everybody acknowledged was a bust, because by almost everyone's admission, if you don't say nice things, you don't get invited back. And to be invited and then to be invited back is, as they say in business, a "cash equivalent." We're all on the take. |
| | Every sin of omission and commission -- supported by those relentless press releases -- was committed as much by the media as by any other business. The media became a prime participant and its managers (if not necessarily its shareholders) key beneficiaries of the business culture. Indeed, the media, as much or more than any other business, has tied itself into a spreadsheet-induced knot of debt and consolidation and surreal accounting practices. |
| | Of course, reporters, editors, producers, and correspondents are righteous about not being business-culture stooges (Time Inc.-ers are always saying, Of course we can write about AOL Time Warner). But try calling up media biggies to get them to talk to you about their own companies, and then it's P.R. people and communications people and public-affairs people up the wazoo. |
| | This is another key feature of the business culture -- nobody is allowed to talk. If you say anything, you're fired. Worse, if you say anything, you're fired and your severance is gone. Indeed, even if you are fired, you've signed all sorts of nondisclosure and mutual-nondisparagement clauses. |
| | And since nobody's really outside the business culture anymore, this effectively means we're all muzzled. |
| | I think he overstates his case (e.g. laying blame on the spreadsheet). But he also makes me wince. |
discuss
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