Here’s what to do. It’s easy. Walk down the street. Go to the corner store, the one that’s not part of a chain. You can drive if you want. Buy something. Smile. Say hi. Pay cash. Don’t shop at Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target, Whole Foods, or fast food restaurants today, in person or online. Don’t buy…
Newsletter 83: The coming backlash against Trump, deep research for 20 bucks a month, Amazon restricts downloads, plus three people to follow and three books to read. The silent resistance I’m not a politician, a political commentator, or a historian. I’m a business book writer and editor. Business books aren’t about politics, they’re about success….
Newsletter 82: How to manage beta readers, who’s licensing what to which AI, how not to blurb, plus three people to follow and three books to read. Benefiting from beta Software that’s finished enough to use, but not complete, is in the beta testing stage. And lately it’s been similarly fashionable for authors to recruit…
Newsletter 81. Using machines to enforce prejudice backfires, don’t use AI to apply to AI companies, a copyright legal shocker, and a list of words to avoid. Plus, three people to follow and three books to read. Machines can’t make trans people disappear — but they can sure do a lot of damage when they…
Donald Trump ordered the Secretary of the Treasury to stop minting pennies. Pennies are stupid. They cost 3.69 cents each to produce and distribute. Producing 3 billion worthless pennies cost the government $85 million last year. The only problem with this is that Congress, not the President, authorizes minting of coins, so you can add…
Newsletter 81. Can you really win by threatening your negotiating partners? Plus, Simon & Schuster ditches blurbs, Ray Dalio dribbles out insights, three books to read and three people to follow. The price of brinksmanship Our president Donald Trump is adept at brinksmanship. Look at his actions over time and you can see a pattern:…
After a year of study and more than 10,000 comments, the US Copyright Office issued its second report on AI and copyright. This report attempts to address the question of when works created with AI tools can be copyrighted. (A third report, to be released later, will address the contentious issue of the legality of…
There is an elephant in the room today. There is no point in talking about anything else today, when all anyone can see is the elephant. Soon, people will start blaming nearly everything on the elephant, or alternatively, giving it credit for nearly everything. This is a mistake. A lot what happens next has been…
When the Soviet Union fell, a collection of individuals took control of privatized industries and began to accumulate massive wealth and political power. These individuals were called oligarchs, a term meaning a small group who together hold political power. Now liberal pundit Robert Reich is talking about American oligarchs. Do we really have powerful oligarchs…