Author: gordon

Can markets be rational when humans aren’t?

“Mind Over Money” features some of this new field’s most compelling experiments. We’ll see how the brains and bodies of Wall Street traders respond as they buy and sell stocks. We’ll watch as an ingenious experiment reveals how an excessive number of spending choices can overwhelm consumers’ ability to make rational decisions. Through these entertaining real-life experiments, NOVA will show how mood, decision-making, and economic activity are all tightly interwoven. By delivering unexpected insights from leading analysts and powerful experiments, “Mind Over Money” exposes the mysterious and surprising nature of two of the most powerful forces on our planet: the human mind and money.

Resources

• Listen to “The Deciding Factor“, a conversation with Jennifer Lerner.
• Watch the entire program online.

#brilliant

Are publishers now opting out of ebook lending?

One of the reasons we’ve been so keen on tracking statistics surrounding the number of lendable books in our catalogue is that it means we’re harvesting information about an industry in its formative stages. Almost no one else has this information — and if they do, they’re not sharing it.

One of our most prominently featured stats is “available titles”. As we’ve mentioned before, that’s not the total number of lendable books our users own — that number is much, much larger — it’s the number of unique lendable titles currently available to borrow from our Lendlers. In other words, we only count “The Hunger Games” once, even if hundreds of people own it.

That number was growing at a pretty steady clip until a few weeks ago when we stalled out somewhere between 7000 and 8000 unique titles. On a couple occasions, we’ve seen that number drop pretty drastically and we’d (of course) prefer to see the numbers moving upward, faster.

• We’ve seen evidence that the drops are due, at least in part, to publishers switching the status of books from lendable to non-lendable, en masse. Macmillan, as an example, was brought to our attention by a Lendler when several of their lendable books suddenly went non-lendable, all at once. Others have noticed the same thing on their profiles. (Disclosure: We believe that if you purchase a lendable copy of a book, it remains lendable even if the publisher later changes the status of the book. We’ve seen no evidence that publishers are revoking lendability from books which have already been purchased.)
• Given the large size of our user-base, we suspect our numbers are representative of virtually all of the lendable titles that people actually want to read. This explains, in part, why our “total lendable copies” number continues to go up even as our “available now” number stalls out. 

Questions that we’d love to see put to publishers and, to a lesser degree, Amazon and Barnes and Noble:

• Can we expect consistent (or even more drastic) cuts to lendable titles?
• Are any publishers thinking of expanding their lendable selection or moving in a more positive direction?
• Will the status of individual titles continue to switch back and forth between lendable and non-lendable? Why the changes?
• How long will “lending” be touted as a feature of both the Kindle and the Nook with such a limited and (it would seem) dwindling selection of lendable titles?
• Surely there are some prominent authors (Neil Gaiman is an obvious candidate) who could/would advocate for lending when it comes to e-books? What happens when a book as popular as American Gods goes lendable? 

We continue to believe that lending is a great marketing tool, and that it’s a feature which can be used to increase sales and cultivate a culture of reading. We also continue to see evidence that Lendle is driving book sales.

Despite all this, Lendle is still the best community of Kindle readers around, we’re doing some really great things with what we have, and there’s much more to come. Ultimately, the best bet for turning things around is an active and vocal community with a clear interest in lending (and buying) Kindle books. 

We hope this is just indicative of an industry in flux, and that as time goes on we’ll see our unique titles resume their upward trajectory, as well as more and more popular titles added into the mix. 

Fingers crossed.

Tags: book lending ebook publishers amazon kindle nook

One of the most important elements of working online is transparency, so I put together this page to show you how I make money online.

I hope that this page can simultaneously give you some of your own ideas on how you can support yourself in a location independent manner.

I’m an author.

Initially, I wrote an e-book called The Art of Being Minimalist (now out of print) that taught people how to get rid of their stuff. I made around $40,000 a year selling this e-book over the Internet to readers of my blog — now I make more. In February of 2011, I switched out The Art of Being Minimalist for my book on Augmented Humanity, which shows a deeper story about why minimalism is happening to you: humans and machines are becoming indistinguishable. Sounds crazy? Read and find out. If you like the work here, I’d love if you’d support my work by delving deeper.

A good free introduction to my writing is How to Create a Movement.

I write for a small group of dedicated readers.

Information travels much faster in the modern age, and it’s flowing faster. Different information flows have different prices. The blog is free, and the content comes, goes, and grows. An e-book is a timeless repository of ideas that apply through space/time in a consistent manner. I realized recently that I needed a commitment from my readers before I dropped them into the deepest work that I’m doing, so I set up a paid subscription Letter.ly where I publish my most important and valuable work. Some of this work is exclusive to the Letter, and won’t be published elsewhere. Some of it eventually makes it to the blog, if it can be revised for public consumption. Subscribe to the Letter.ly here.

I evolve your digital work.

After I wrote The Art of Being Minimalist, I received hundreds of emails asking how I was able to make a living running a simple business online.  In May 2009, I wrote Minimalist Business to answer these questions and give you a glimpse into what your own future could be. You can learn how to run a zero-overhead online business through experimentation, or you can learn how I was able to do it by reading the e-book. Occasionally I give people a business evolutionary boost over Skype. If you’re interested in a 1-on-1, sign up here to be notified when a slot is available — supplies are limited and I’m very selective with who I work with at this point. Please read Minimalist Business first, so we can get on the same page.

All of these income streams combine to a living wage that’s much higher than your average job.

Why I’m able to live anywhere.

I still have near zero-overhead, I work infrequently and when I want to. My e-book sales provide a base level of income for comfort. At this point, the idea of working at a desk seems bizarre to me — though I’ve been told some people like it. I’m able to do this because my life overhead is low. I don’t need much to make me happy. I don’t own or want many things. I drink coffee and smoothies, I practice yoga, occasionally I enjoy a well-crafted beer. I don’t own a car, and wherever I may be located I rent or share a small apartment. I live my life in the world. This means while my income is significant, it also doesn’t matter much. I’m able to explore creative angles without much risk by living with less.

My location independent office.

I don’t have an office. Instead I work in-between on my 11″ MacBook air and an iPhone. You’ll find me in coffee shops in Boulder, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, or elsewhere in the world writing and enjoying a single origin Americano. To see where I am now, follow on Twitter. I’m able to do this because I run a Minimalist Business. I don’t have to work out of obligation. Instead, I work on what interests me most at any moment in time. I commonly jump out of bed in the morning excited for life. If I don’t want to work, I don’t — but most days I really do!

Everything Podcasting

Libsyn is your one stop solution for everything you need to start podcasting, get your podcast in iTunes and even turn your show into an App.

Podcast Solutions for Beginners to Established Producers

If you are new to podcasting everything you need is here: publishing tools, media hosting and delivery, RSS for iTunes, a Web Site, Stats and a platform that has your back as you grow as a producer.

Take your podcast to the next level.

For those ready to take the next step we have podcast apps to extend the reach and monetization capabilities of your content and advertising programs available.

Move Your Content.

Producers looking for a new home for your content can easily migrate over to the libsyn platform with our automated tools.

I am thinking about starting a technology/education podcast…stay tuned, so to speak.

All the benefits of social networking designed for the Enterprise. Neudesic Pulse makes employee collaboration easier than ever to share ideas, project updates, files, feedback, and receive instant answers — anywhere, anytime.

Get on the cutting edge of compliant, universal design and learn accessibility from top experts! Attendees will engage with world renowned accessibility experts to improve design skills and to understand both the need and the techniques for inclusive IT design. From the basics to the bleeding edge, AccessU will provide the resources you need.

May 17, 2011 – May 19, 2011
St. Edward’s University
3001 South Congress Avenue
Austin, TX 78704

A special thanks to Our Sponsors

Giving it a go…again…