the lexfiles

More on Rents

Tyler Cowen answers a question I'd almost forgotten I'd asked.  And other people that are smarter than me discuss in the comments. 

Land is inelastic in supply, and thus the landowners reap the rest of what is produced.  We can also see that the last plot of land used (and not the marginal piece of land not used) determines rent and wages, because it is the actually used piece of land which regulates population and the return to labor.

I remain unconvinced.

I know it seems like we're talking about a non-issue.  And may be.  Unless you're the owner of the least productive land used.  In which case, it's an important source of income (we call it "rent").

But many thanks to Tyler for addressing the question.

A Sweet Homecoming

I arrived home last night to find a big box of goodies from Amazon - enough, perhaps, to keep me going for weeks.  A lot of singularity based reading, quite a bit on writing, and some fiction thrown in for good measure.

And the cream on top was the first DVD of Deadwood season 3.  I don't think I have to go into how much I love Deadwood, and at times like these, Netflix, if only by extension.

Speaking of things that I like, I also bought a copy of Lamb, just because I love it and like to have a copy to loan out to friends.  Though I may reread it before it's available for lending.  Because I'm selfish like that.

I've updated the reading lists, scrapping all of the Econ/Philosphy stuff that I haven't cracked the cover of yet, though I'll likely read Tyler's book when it becomes available.

You may notice that some books went straight the Recent Reading pile without having ever been in the Currently Reading pile.  I've been busy.  I'll try to get to reviews before too long, but not yet.  Except to say that "On Writing Well" was the first book I've read in quite a while that actually made me dislike the author.  The book wasn't terrible, except for the fact that he displayed an annoying habit of injecting his politics into it.  It's a book about writing.  If I'd wanted a book on the political opinions of William K. Zinsser, presumably I'd have bought something different, maybe a subscription to Pompous Leftist Magazine.  Mainly, you'd hope that the author of a book on writing would know to stick with the subject.

A Bit of Fry and Laurie

And while I'm posting links to funny youtube things - Fry and Laurie on language, which is one of my fave all time Fry and Laurie skits.

Mystery (Again)

There's a more recent version of Hugh Laurie singing Mystery up on youtube.  Yes, as pointed out in the comments on the page, the words have changed (his love has somehow made to 1993, instead of '73, and others).  We still love it.

All first drafts are shit

The On Writing list is already bearing fruit.

You have to be willing to write a bad first draft. “All first drafts are shit,” declared Ernest Hemingway, and although this is more true in some cases than others, there’s a soul-releasing freedom in embracing the crappiness of first-draft writing. All you have to do is get it on the page. It’s allowed to suck: that’s what revision is for.

This blog is all first drafts.  Very rarely do I compose a post and look it over for more than spelling errors, let alone making any attempt at making the prose pretty.  Which is almost a shame - I could have used the practice.  Many posts here were written in a hurry, or under the influence, and could use some tidying up.

But with a weblog, it just seems somehow wrong to go back over stuff, especially once I've hit the "Publish" button.

On Writing

I added a new list of linky goodness - weblogs "on writing", by which I mean, by writers.

I did manage to actually do some writing myself last night, after months of outlining and character notes and what if's.  I don't need to go back and read what I'd written to know that it's utter crap.  But at least it's a start - the story is starting to move, which is in itself a good thing.  Everything is on index cards right now anyway, so the prose will be cleaned up just in making the leap to pixels.

Will I finish?  Silly question.  Do I ever finish anything?  But it will be a fun diversion for a while.

Can We Call It a Riaa?

If "ohms" are the until of electrical resistance, what is the unit of resistance to change? This piece in the NY Times on the future of publishing shows evidence of many Riaas in that industry.

“Giving an author’s book away for nothing on the Web as a way to market books seems a mirage to me,” Ms. Brown wrote in an e-mail message after the lunch. “All it does is feed the hungry angles of journalists and bloggers who plunder it without any of the author’s context or nuance and makes the reader feel there is nothing new to learn from the genuine article when it finally limps on its weary way to a book shop.”

This model will change.  And if they want to stay in business, their model will have to change too. 

The main problem is that right now, publishers provide two things: 1) The actual physical printing of books - getting the written words onto dead trees, and 2) The filtering and advertising functions - separating the wheat and so forth, plus letting the world know about it.

But both of these functions are becoming obsolete.  Print-on-Demand services are making printing easier than ever (this is obviously leaving out digital books, which are (also obviously) inferior) , and internet communities can replace the gatekeeper and advertising functions. 

Will it happen overnight?  Probably not.  And established publishers may continue be useful for signalling quality and printing very large runs of books.  But.  Their influence is waning.