After three years and 400 pages, I have finally finished writing the first draft of a novel. Now I'm collecting all kinds of advice about writing and editing. Do you have some? I also like books, science fiction, and many other things.
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1,000 True Fans →
The Internet enables a new way for artists to succeed in the digital age?
A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.
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Why We're Powerless To Resist Grazing On Endless Web Data →
This article is fascinating, particularly because spending an hour or two surfing aimlessly is an unfortunate weakness of mine.
What is it about a Web site that might make it literally irresistible? Clues are offered by research conducted by Irving Biederman, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California, who is interested in the evolutionary and biological basis of the human need for information.
The article also makes an interesting argument against comments on Web sites. When the WSJ asked readers whether or not they preferred comments, they responded 60/40 against:
Even more striking than the fact that these readers were denying themselves a voice was the reason some of them gave for declining the offer: Like cats chasing a laser, they wouldn’t be able to stop themselves
“In truth we would rarely opt not to read them,” said one reader. “Blog comments have the power to hammerlock one’s attention. … We’d be impotent to resist looking over the rantings and counter-rantings. … Not only would comments be an incredible drain on one’s time (especially if we check your blog several times a day from work), but it also exposes readers to the nasty underbelly of blogging.”
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Knox'd: Where Knoxville finds information →
Nifty local Web aggregator from Patrick Beeson.
Knox’d has one goal: to aggregate the latest news and information (including jobs, real estate and classified listings), in one location. It seeks to fill the technology gap between the folks that use RSS (me), and the folks that don’t. The latter accounts for the vast majority of Internet users, according to a Pew Internet report.
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What Every American Should Know About the Middle East →
Brief little two-minute overview of the Middle East. At the book store the other day I saw The Middle East for Dummies — this is like that book, for dummies. (Via kottke.)
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How to argue →
- Re-express your opponent’s position
- List any points of agreement
- Mention anything you have learned from you opponent
- Then criticize
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aatw:
Jordan Crane’s amazing cover for Michael Chabon’s Maps and Legends
That is absolutely beautiful.
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Via soupsoup.
Oh, Calvin & Hobbes. Who wants to buy me the amazing colossal superset?
More art (and a fan site) here.
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Chinese artists responsible for 60% of the world’s oil paintings paint their self-portraits. From Self-portraiture and emerging artistic consciousness in Dafen, via Boing Boing
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If God Is Dead, Who Gets His House? →
Some within the New Atheism movement are trying to create atheist social organizations to replace the theist ones they rail against. I hear Hazel Motes is doing great things with his Church of Christ Without Christ.
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"It put me in a different mode. It slowed me down: ‘Look at this guy. He is all dressed up and he is in an abandoned building.’ I am here to put things back together."
Former detective Vernon J. Geberth on the symbolism of wearing a fine suit on the job, from this NYT article
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The Power of Books by Mladen Penev. (via szymon)
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"The brain does not simply gather and stockpile information as a computer’s hard drive does. Facts are stored first in the hippocampus, a structure deep in the brain about the size and shape of a fat man’s curled pinkie finger. But the information does not rest there. Every time we recall it, our brain writes it down again, and during this re-storage, it is also reprocessed. In time, the fact is gradually transferred to the cerebral cortex and is separated from the context in which it was originally learned. For example, you know that the capital of California is Sacramento, but you probably don’t remember how you learned it. This phenomenon, known as source amnesia, can also lead people to forget whether a statement is true. Even when a lie is presented with a disclaimer, people often later remember it as true."
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Scanned Images, Engravings and Pictures From Old Books →
This site is genius.
Theme: Linear by Peter Vidani
