So my wife and I were sitting around trying to figure out that classic puzzle of the self-organizing, unplanned urban economy: where the best Christmas trees are being sold this year. (In NYC, alarmingly friendly Canadians and New Englanders come down and camp out on random streetcorners for most of December, with a mini forest of trees lined up around them.) So I went to Google, and sure enough, this map is the top result. Sometimes you have to remind yourself how fast things are moving in this phase of the web's development -- making a collective map like this would have been pretty much unthinkable just a year ago.
The Basics
- I'm a father of three boys, husband of one wife, and author of eight books, and co-founder of three web sites. We spend most of the year in Marin County, California though I'm on the road a lot giving talks. (You can see the full story here.) Personal correspondence should go to sbeej68 at gmail dot com. If you're interested in having me speak at an event, drop a line to Wesley Neff at the Leigh Bureau (WesN at Leighbureau dot com.)
My Books
Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
An exploration of environments that lead to breakthrough innovation, in science, technology, business, and the arts. I conceived it as the closing book in a trilogy on innovative thinking, after Ghost Map and Invention. But in a way, it completes an investigation that runs through all the books. Sold more copies in hardcover than anything else I've written.The Invention of Air
The story of the British radical chemist Joseph Priestley, who ended up having a Zelig-like role in the American Revolution. My version of a founding fathers book, and a reminder that most of the Enlightenment was driven by open source ideals.The Ghost Map
The latest: the story of a terrifying outbreak of cholera in 1854 London 1854 that ended up changing the world. An idea book wrapped around a page-turner. I like to think of it as a sequel to Emergence if Emergence had been a disease thriller. You can see a trailer for the book here.Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
The title says it all. This one sparked a slightly insane international conversation about the state of pop culture -- and particularly games. There were more than a few dissenters, but the response was more positive than I had expected. And it got me on The Daily Show, which made it all worthwhile.Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
My first best-seller, and the only book I've written in which I appear as a recurring character, subjecting myself to a battery of humiliating brain scans. The last chapter on Freud and the neuroscientific model of the mind is one of my personal favorites.Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
The story of bottom-up intelligence, from slime mold to Slashdot. Probably the most critically well-received all my books, and the one that has influenced the most eclectic mix of fields: political campaigns, web business models, urban planning, the war on terror.Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate
My first. The book I wrote instead of finishing my dissertation. Still in print almost a decade later, and still relevant, I think. But I haven't read it in a while, so who knows what's in there!
Recent Posts
- The GovLab
- What Peer Progressives Really Believe
- Tilting At Windmills, The Internet Edition
- Bill Clinton On "Creative Networks of Collaboration"
- A Quick Roundup Of Future Perfect News
- Future Perfect Tour
- First reviews for Future Perfect
- Introducing Future Perfect
- Why The Bay Area Needs The Bay Lights
- Anatomy Of An Idea
There's a reason those New Englanders are alarmingly friendly. The economics surrounding Christmas trees in NYC are a great example of how "location, location, location" applies in retailing as well as in real estate. A bushy 8-foot tree goes for about $17 up here in the Berkshires - here the question buyers ask themselves is "Pay someone, or find one on your own land?" Bring it 150 miles south and the price is 4x. We're smiling all the way to maple syrup season...
Posted by: EthanZ | December 12, 2005 at 06:27 AM
The first time I saw that site, I thought of your "curatorial culture" article--there's nothing new here, just people organizing existing things into collections. And it creates value.
Posted by: Bob | December 12, 2005 at 09:12 AM
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Posted by: france | April 02, 2007 at 01:33 AM