Wednesday, January 28, 2004
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I have no idea who I'll vote for in November, but Dean's campaign is definitely the most interesting phenomenon to me. Clay Shirky wonders if the Deanstorm is an echo chamber ...
When I was 19, I remember seeing a bunch of guys in a parking lot in New Jersey absolutely rocking out to Twisted Sister at top volume, “Oh we’re not gonna take it, No, we ain’t gonna take it, Oh we’re not gonna take it anymo-o-o-o-ore” and I remember thinking the song was using up the energy that would otherwise go into rebellion.
Just rocking out to Twisted Sister so hard, and feeling so good about it, made those guys feel like they’d already stood up to The Man, making it less likely that they would actually do so in the real world, when the time came. And I’m wondering if the Dean campaign has been singing a version of that song, or, rather, I’m wondering if the bottom-up tools they’ve been using have been helping their supporters sing that song to each other.
It's good to ask the question, but I think there's a false economic presumption here. Human motivation isn't a fixed constant, it's not a zero-sum game. A good song can inspire people to go out and do things they wouldn't have done otherwise, even after they've rocked their brains out to it. What Clay seems to really be asking is if Deansters can tell the difference between team spirit and accomplishment, i.e. the diff between the Monday morning sales rally and blowing out the quarter.
Link to this entry Posted on 1/28/04; 9:10:02 PM
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| 101 Dumbest Moments in Business 2003 |
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Ditherati editor Owen Thomas is one of the major contributors to Business 2.0's annual 101 Dumbest Moments list, and it shows. See #36 for the obligatory blog angle.
Link to this entry Posted on 1/28/04; 10:33:40 AM
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User interface guru Don Norman is live on The Connection radio show talking about our love/hate relationship with cellphones. He says US service quality is one reason Americans want to throw their phones out the window: "We're a third world country when it comes to cellphones ... people get frustrated because the technology lets them down." The show is still on now if you want to call in.
Link to this entry Posted on 1/28/04; 8:55:08 AM
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It's come to my attention that a few of you still haven't discovered Wonkette. It's best described as "Gawker for the Beltway," because if you don't know what either of those words mean, it'll be tough to follow. Sample entries:
New Hampshire: Math is Hard!
This is our punishment for publishing exit polls. Kerry by double digits! And still Dean's grimacing that spooky rictus. How much would Dean have to lose by for him to call it a loss?
P.S. Guess that "Joementum" was a figment of someone's Joe-magination.
David Kirkpatrick Hangs to the Right
Everyone's straining to describe exactly how weird it is that the New York Times has put former media reporter David Kirkpatrick on a new "conservative beat"-- but none more so than the New York Observer itself, who first reported on the story today. Their initial attempt calls it "strange, if not off-putting—a little like Judge Reinholt peering through the bathroom window at Phoebe Cates in Fast Times at Ridgemont High." A second assesses the first fruits of this labor. "[E]arly attempts have felt stilted, forced: a little like trying to write the story of Brooklyn’s feelings about their would-be basketball team and arena by talking to people walking down Flatbush Avenue".
And we thought we knew politics! But if we understand this right, the conservatives are a basketball team made up of naked teenage girls. No wonder they control all the branches of government!
Having worked a few seats away from editor Ana Marie Cox in the 90s (she edited some of Suck's best stuff, while I worked on some Web thing I've now forgotten and so has everyone else), I can vouch for her claim that she looks nothing like the cartoon gal atop the site. Who apparently gets asked out a lot.
Ah, here's a photo of Ana from the crazy days of 1996. You didn't get it from me.
Link to this entry Posted on 1/28/04; 12:16:27 AM
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Paul Boutin
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