The Long Tail 0 – Cards on the Table

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My next several postings are going to be a critical reader’s companion for The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. And if you’re going to read these postings, there are some things you should know – and that’s what this introductory post is for, to make sure all my cards are on the table.

The posts talk about The Long Tail, but they are really about two books. Both were published in summer 2006 and both were about the changing face of individual choice in today’s economy and culture. If it wasn’t for The Long Tail‘s index being two pages shorter, both would be exactly 240 pages long. Both authors have a training in science, but neither are professional economists or cultural studies professionals. In fact, both work in the computer industry, one as an editor of Wired Magazine, and one for a computer software company. At the time of writing, The Long Tail is at number 310 in the Amazon best seller list. The other book currently stands at 806,127.

Obviously that second author is me. My book is "No One Makes You Shop At Wal-Mart: the surprising deceptions of individual choice" and it was published by Between The Lines … Continue reading

A School District With Low Taxes and No Schools – New York Times

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Here is a case of free riding in spades, from Jeff Topping in the New York Times.

Just to be clear, Patrick Flynn says he loves public education. He just does not like the idea of paying for it.

So when it came time last
November for the expanding, unincorporated desert community of Troon to
choose between joining a nearby school district, and paying higher
property taxes to help finance it, or starting its own, Mr. Flynn led
the movement that created the Christopher Verde School District.

Not that the Christopher Verde district will  have any schools, teachers or, apparently, students.

The children of Troon will continue to attend nearby schools. And thanks to a loophole in  Arizona law, the grown-ups of Troon will continue to avoid paying property
taxes in those districts, which makes officials in the districts less
than mirthful.

“The whole purpose of this was to avoid taxes on their million-dollar homes,” said State Senator Linda Gray, a Republican who has sponsored a bill to prevent the formation of a school district
without schools. (Ms. Gray conceded that there was at … Continue reading

How should we link to books?

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Most people, when they mention a book and want to link to something about that book, link to Amazon. It’s easy and it’s become the norm.

But I don’t like it. Neither, unsurprisingly, does Dave from How to Furnish a Room.  I’ve noticed he links to Powells web site, which is cunning. People can read about the book, but Powells (US based) does not compete with the Words Worth behemoth. Linking to Amazon has made the Amazon page the canonical page for many books and encourages us all to think "buy book, go to Amazon" and if we all do that then where do we browse in the real world? What’s an independent bookstore aficionado to do?

But what’s the alternative? Linking to Powells solves the competition problem, but it’s clearly a bit of a slapdash fix. Usually I try to link to the publisher’s site for a book, but that can take a bit of work to locate in some cases or in the case of older, out of print books. I’ve heard there are networks of independent bookstores that provide something similar, but I’ve not found it yet.

Good ideas – hell, any ideas – welcome.

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Tit fot Tat

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First, my thanks to Mark Thoma, John Quiggin, and Brad DeLong for responding to my request to mark the passing of Anatol Rapoport. It’s odd whose death gets noticed and whose doesn’t: Jane Jacobs’ passing was remarked far and wide (and rightly so) but Rapoport, who I think was as important a thinker in a different way, seemed to get less attention. Their posts helped to right that a little in the social science blogosphere.

Comments on Brad DeLong’s posting pulled him into a sequence of posts about Tit for Tat and other repeated prisoner’s dilemma strategies, in A Note on a GRIM Game of Repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma…., and More on Tit for Tat. For what it’s worth, I’m just going to put my two cents in here.

First, I do agree with one commenter (David Cameron) that the submission of Tit for Tat, although  widely known because of Axelrod’s writing about the tournaments, was certainly not the most substantial of Rapoport’s contributions. Still, it has a certain je ne sais quoi that obviously catches the attention, as all … Continue reading

In memoriam: Anatol Rapoport

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I saw in the Globe and Mail that Anatol Rapoport died in Toronto on January 20, at the age of, I think, 95. He was an important person in many ways. I never met him, but I’ve been influenced both directly and indirectly by his mix of strong intelligence and conviction.

For anyone reading this who doesn’t know who Rapoport was, here are a few scattered items I know of about the man. There is more in the Globe and Mail obituary.

  • His book "Strategy and Conscience" was a unique contribution to the struggle against militaristic thinking in the cold war. It responded to the technicians of the Rand Corporation and others whose supposedly rational thinking was helping to guide strategy. Rapoport’s response to them was unique. He took them on at their own game, so to speak, and showed how the game theory approach missed key aspects of the conflict. He was not "anti game theory" by any means — quite the opposite — but also knew the limits of theory and the dangers of elegant but ultimately simplistic thinking.
  • As game theory developed in the ’50s and ’60s Rapoport was one of those who investigated the … Continue reading

Freak – Freakonomics � unsettling economics

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Michael Perelman points is to "a delightful slam" at Steven Levitt’s hit book Freakonomics. by Ariel Rubinstein, who is himself an economist who has done prominent research about bargaining. I enjoyed Freakonomics, but Rubinstein gives it a very sharp poke with a stick, and he puts his finger on a number of things that I had vaguely disliked about the book, as well as much else. It’s a short entertaining read.

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