Tag Archives: thoughts

Morality

David Brooks’s Op-Ed on Morality has been the most popular article on the NY Times website for two days now.

Think of what happens when you put a new food into your mouth. You don’t have to decide if it’s disgusting. You just know. You don’t have to decide if a landscape is beautiful. You just know.

Moral judgments are like that. They are rapid intuitive decisions and involve the emotion-processing parts of the brain. Most of us make snap moral judgments about what feels fair or not, or what feels good or not. We start doing this when we are babies, before we have language. And even as adults, we often can’t explain to ourselves why something feels wrong.

Posted in Politics | Tagged | 2 Comments

Words N' Sales

We’ve got lots of writers on bigWOWO, and the big question for those who follow the publishing industry is this: where’s the money?  I’ve blogged about it here and here, and now I’m going to blog on it again. This time, we’re going to talk about the distribution methods.

Regular everyday people who sell their used books online, through Amazon and other channels, are transforming the industry, according to this new NY Times article.  Apparently their actions are wreaking havoc on publishers and writers.  Instead of buying new books, people are buying used books from other individuals.  More used books equal fewer new books which means less money for publishers and writers.

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Depression 2009

(Greg Klee/Globe Staff Illustration, Boston Globe)

(Greg Klee/Globe Staff Illustration, Boston Globe)

Don’t know what the rest of you are experiencing, but the economy here is bad, and in my industry, it’s been very bad for a very long time. The horror stories that our grandparents told us about growing up poor are becoming a reality for many Americans, and I’ve met lots of people who are in basic survival mode–shopping at Walmart, eliminating vacations, avoiding restaurants, and holding on to whatever pennies they earn. The economy is bad, and it’s most likely going to be bad for a very long time.

Posted in Features, history, News | Tagged , , | 2 Comments