

Dear Malcolm: Why so threatened? - bootload
http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2009/06/dear-malcolm-why-so-threatened.html

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evgen
I think Gladwell is concerned that another writer is intruding on his niche of
content-free pablum predicated upon the mistaken assumption that the plural of
anecdote is data. The only thing more amusing than watching two writers who
seem to operate within their own reality-distortion fields argue past each
other is seeing members of the blogosphere who share a similar unfamiliarity
with the concept of debate grounded in facts and data weigh in on either side.

~~~
papa
"...that the plural of anecdote is data..."

Thank you for this most excellent quote. I got a good laugh out of that quip.

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jamesbritt
Interesting back-story on that line:

<http://bearcastle.com/blog/?m=20050808>

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sanj
Talk to me after Ken has made enough to quit his day job.

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mahmud
What does that have to do with anything? since when was commercial success a
measure of quality? (specially in writing?)

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nir
But the discussion isn't whether you can create quality writing while giving
it away for free (obviously that's going on, long before the Internet - eg the
Bible..) but whether "free" is a sustainable business model.

Anderson's own example is a guy who actually makes a living working as a civil
engineer, ie selling his time for money. What he does in his spare time, for
free, is known outside the Wired hype bubble as "a hobby".

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sutro
Dear Chris: Why so inane?

