A few people have asked me whether I’m going to repeat my Critical Reader’s Guide to The Long Tail with Chris Anderson’s new book Free. It’s nice to be asked, so thank you. And I am, of course, susceptible to bribes and flattery. But the answer right now is No. Three reasons:
- I don’t have a vendetta against the guy, so there’s no particular reason to go after him again.
- To be honest, I doubt that it will be interesting enough to spend that amount of time on.
- I don’t think the ideas will be as destructive as I think the Long Tail has been.
CK says:
You may be interested in Malcolm Gladwell’s critical review of “Free” here:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2009/07/06/090706crbo_books_gladwell
I was pointed to the review by Seth Godin, who disagreed with Malcolm.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/06/malcolm-is-wrong.html
Interestingly enough, Seth does make this point:
“And it’s ironic that I read Malcolm’s review for free. And ironic that you
can read Chris’s arguments the most cogently by paying for them.”