Brian Frank, two first names.

The Problem With Protest Rallies

23.01.2010

First I’m going to straight-up admit I don’t have the disposition for them. I just don’t like sitting or standing in any audience or crowd. But I have reasons as well.
In a way, the bigger the crowd, the less social it becomes. Of course it’s social in a really basic way, but there isn’t much [...]

Learning as a Craft

18.01.2010

Read The Craftsman by Richard Sennett — one of my favourite thinkers. This book gets right to the heart of things. From the publisher’s description:
Defining craftsmanship far more broadly than “skilled manual labor,” Richard Sennett maintains that the computer programmer, the doctor, the artist, and even the parent and citizen engage in a craftsman’s work. Craftsmanship names [...]

Stuff I’ve Been Reading

15.01.2010

» … besides news about Haiti, Google, #teamconan (awesome!), prorogation…
» How Fiction Works, James Wood — not so much a how-to as a brilliantly curated conversation across time between some of the greatest authors about subtleties I’d never noticed, e.g. how characters are efficiently “got in,” etc.
» The Design of Business, Roger Martin … who has been busy:

“The [...]

Hashtag Debate in London

13.01.2010

• Don’t take it too seriously. There will never be consensus. Ultimately everything is decided by what people use. Debate about what we should use will just go on and on forever.
• Sometimes the stupidest ideas (sometimes starting as jokes and accidents) turn out to be the most popular and effective. Think of LOLcats (and [...]

More Aspects of Google’s New Approach to China

13.01.2010

Other people will have a lot more insight into this than I do, but since everyone is talking about Google’s announcement [excerpted]…
We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we [...]

Focusing on Opportunities

11.01.2010

I’ve learned not to care as much when other people are being stupid.
It’s their problem.
Last year I did more blogging in the spirit of “someone’s wrong on the internet,” but lately I’ve learned to lay off and let people screw up.
(I’m so kind.)
When I started writing about media it was because I was interested in [...]

What happens after you read a book?

10.01.2010

With me it varies a lot.
Sometimes I’ll write a blog post about it. Depends though. For the last couple of fiction books I wrote little reviews immediately after I finished them. I think I was trying to articulate “what they were about,” or something.
Sometimes I’ll write a post that isn’t exactly about the book, but [...]

How has the Internet changed the way you think?

09.01.2010

For 2010’s Edge Annual Question, John Brockman asked 165 of the smartest people he knows “How has the Internet changed the way you think? ”
[It's a familiar topic around here... and I actually answered the question when I wrote about last year's.]
A surprising number of answers are about sex. More than a few antagonize or [...]

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