While I patiently wait for daughter Tammy to lend me her copy of the book, Freakonomics, I happened to stumble upon the blog that its authors, Stephen J Dubnar and Steven D Levitt, created back in 2005.
One of the more fascinating articles that I read there this afternoon was this one, in which the writers explain why the move of their blog to the NY Times website has resulted in partial RSS feed support, where it had previously provided full feeds. What interested me so much was that the topic dovetailed with something that I'm currently engaged in a friendly e-mail debate on with a friend: the current cultural phenomenon where more and more people seem to expect larger and larger portions of their entertainment to be free. That observation is nothing new; but it does keep presenting itself in new and interesting ways.
In the RSS feed blog entry linked to above, it was astonishing to me that seemingly-rational people were so put out over having to make one extra mouse-click (in order to read an article's content) that they would essentially equate it to no longer being "free" (and hence use terms like "buoycott" and "withhold support"). Forget your dollars and cents (or sense!); now everything has to be "effort-free," as well, it seems! Wow...
And before someone asks: yes, Tammy and I do lend books back in forth, in the time-honoured tradition of avid readers. For example, she'd bought The World Is Flat, by Thomas Friedman, awhile back, and lent it to me last year (as I blogged about in December). As a result of how much I liked that book, I just ordered his follow-up, Hot, Flat and Crowded, in hardcover, a few weeks after its release date. Once I've finished it, I'll hand it off to Tammy and thus complete the cycle! It's great when you and your kid can share stuff back and forth (Vicki gets to do it with clothes, but I don't think I'd look all that good in Tammy's dresses...)
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