Nothing Ever Happens

Marshall McLuhan, the hugely influential guru of the mass media, wrote The Laws of Media Tetrads, which are comprised of four questions- four aspects or effects that apply, without exception, to all creations – intangible or tangible, abstract or concrete – of humankind. They are quoted here from McLuhan’s Laws of Media: The New […]

A great new book by Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class.
In Who’s Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life, Florida describes how a ‘creative class’ of people is changing the economic landscape by congregating in a shrinking set of cities […]

Always in print:
#1 / Monocle
Started by Tyler Brule (who founded Wallpaper in 1996) is my absolute favorite. It’s all about the quality of life! Monocle is a new entrant which shows there is always room for innovation even in a declining industry. While newspapers are closing overseas offices and trimming staff, Monocle is adding offices […]

1. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
From New York University professor Clay Shirky and famous internet social-phenomena observateur.
2. Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes
From “Soccer Moms” to “Late-Breaking Gays” Mark Penn studies America’s ever-splintering societal subsets.
3. Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob
Critic Lee Siegel […]

I read the interview for Wired (with horror pictures from Abu Ghraib) with Stanford psychology professor emeritus Philip Zimbardo, who’s new book The Lucifer Effect summarizes more than 30 years of research on factors that can create a “perfect storm” which leads good people to engage in evil actions. And then there his hope […]

A must-read for all internet web 2.0 enthusiasts, an article by Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur, the most disputable book of 2007, and a heresy here in Silicon Valley. Read also The Great Seduction, Andrew’s blog.

Web 2.0 has transformed our culture into a crowd of mediocrity without a voice.
The open community, […]

Dear Bert,
it was REALLY a pleasure meeting you and it was truly one of the most inspiring conversations I’ve ever had.
Your anti-spam guardian is stubborn and doesn’t let my email through, and in accordance with radical transparency philosophy I am advocating, I’m posting the entire email on my blog.

Everything is Miscellaneous is in my opinion the most important book on the paradigm shift from information to network society. It’s about the breakdown of the established order of ordering. Written by David Weinberger (his blog), Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society (and the author of the legendary Cluetrain Manifesto and Small […]