Don't be a silly quant! | 68 comments (68 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: It's just a hook (4.00 / 6)

None of the engineers I did my degree with were noticeably blessed with communications skills - to the extent that for one of our projects the tutor was surprised that I could actually write English fluently, because most of the write-ups he received were barely literate.

But aside from that - corporate communication skills (and here comes the PowerPoint...) are very different to real world comnunication skills.

There's a natural tendency among engineers, mathematicians and physicists to treat everything as an exercise in 'Hunt the Algorithm' - followed by a tendency to assume that reality is whichever algorithm has been invented.

This causes no end of problems socially and especially economically, because it makes it difficult to promote a more organic and less controlled world view.

All of the foundational nonsense that we're cursed with - simple one-dimensional metrics like GDP, unemployment, exchange rates, stock prices, and the rest of it - are rooted in this abstracted arms-length algorithmic way of relating to the world.

The corollary of algorithmic abstraction of social transactions is that other kinds of interactions become invisible.

So this isn't about communication skills, because if you're communicating the same old abstracted nonsense, it's still nonsense - no matter how popular it is with your boss, and no matter how well you're doing at getting the socially-approved high score with your trading model.

It's still being treated a video game, and not as something with real-world consequences which matter to people outside of the office.

And that in turn is still a form of social autism, albeit an institutionalised and culture-wide one.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Mon Nov 26th, 2007 at 10:35:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: It's just a hook (none / 1)

I get the impression you've never met someone with Aspergers or Autism. It's nothing like the social malady you're describing.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Mon Nov 26th, 2007 at 11:47:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: It's just a hook (none / 1)

From what you're saying it sounds like "autism" meaning "incapacity to relate [emotionally or in complex fashion?] with other humans" (or variant thereof) is separating itself linguistically from "autism" meaning "specific mental health condition"...have I got that about right?

It'd be nice to have correct(er) terms if possible. I know a young girl who has been diagnosed with Aspergers; the most I know about autism (medically diagnosable condition) is that there was a book written about it (where an example of autism was the narrator's inability to recognise the emotions described with simply "smiley" type faces), and there was a television programme about a woman who seemed to have five autistic kids (maybe I've got that wrong), and one of them seemed very clued up--his main problem was that he had endless energy he needed to vent so he became just uncontrollable, leaping over things (I may have remembered that wrong.)

Is it useful now to make a distinction between the kind of people ThatBritGuy is describing (might be called people who would score low on an EQ test--I'm not sure...the shorthand word most used seems to be "autistic"--so...er....I think it's a useful distinction to make if such a distinction can be made--I'm saying...if autism is a "scale of social inability" then...hmmm...could you expand on "it's nothing like the social malady you're describing"?

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 06:39:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: It's just a hook (4.00 / 4)

RG, there are useful descriptions under my wiki links. But one of the points I was trying, but obviously failed to make, was that there are few neat compartments in the functions of the brain that can be labelled.

Until you are brain dead - all brains 'work'. Even an alcoholic's brain work's, though it may be devoted to finding the next drink, and to the virtual exclusion of all other social behaviour.

What I am saying is that the genetic gift you get when you are conceived is a whole complex of specialized factories for the production of biochemical modifiers. And it should not be surprising that the rates of production differ in different people. It seems though that one could define upper and lower limits for production within which people 'seem' to be normal. But outside these limits people appear (to others) abnormal.

We can medically intervene in some of these 'imbalances' and we can also self-administer to affect the balance. As we both know. However we are a long way from really understanding how blockers and inhibitors and all the rest really work. In the meantime we have these crude labels which you rightly question.

The mindblowing drug flood that puberty releases or that passionate love releases (or is caused by) would be considered catastrophic system failure if it were not for the side effects ;-)

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 08:23:26 AM EST
[ Parent ]

OT To A Visual Type (none / 0)

Can you suggest any links for printers/publishers of books in small volumes (low hundreds?). I'm looking for a rough idea of costs, that's all...

(I was imagining book covers--again--"Journalism" looked good, the book itself maybe a plain yellow, Journalism in, what, dark green? Inside broken down into "Reporting" (Far Easterner, Nomad, Stormy Present, DoDo, nanne, etc..); "Deconstruction" (Jerome, Migeru, Colman, etc..); "What's Missing?" (Various comments showing what specific areas journalists miss--[not sure about this one...getting their magnitudes wrong...sales to...hmmm...undergraduate journalist students...heh...]...heh...

Yam Mei Bi Wei Ov

*8"%7)

(Emoticon saluting the imbalances in an effort to maintain them in some form of crazy balance)

</OT>

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 08:43:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 1)

I don't have any contacts in the UK. I can check Finnish prices.

But I think you should look at order-driven digital printing ie the book is not printed till it is ordered. The Finnish Post Office offers this kind of printing service and of course they distribute by mail according to address lists, and will handle COD etc. The whole supply chain is subcontracted.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 09:51:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (4.00 / 2)

If you go for print-on-demand, try Lulu. No entry costs, price (and design etc.) can be freely chosen, you just give them 20% of your profit (mafia-sytle).

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu

by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 10:13:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 1)

heh! I just created a book.

COMPOSITION-RHETORIC

STRATTON D. BROOKS
Superintendent of Schools, Boston, Mass.

AND

MARIETTA HUBBARD
Formerly English Department, High School La Salle, Illinois

[Taken from www.gutenberg.net a while back, the .txt was on my local drive, I followed the site's instructions and produced...

http://www.lulu.com/content/1533479

£6.81 a book, but I think the euro and dollar sets come out less. So, setting up book packages...three books would be £20, some of which would come back via profits from sales, so £20 or less for three books...

Plus any random or directed online sales. Hmmmm....seems too easy...(but so does photocopying--to me--compared to pre-photocopying technologies, so...)

Thanks for the link!

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 11:07:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 1)

No problem. It's a great way to publish one's stuff and I have no idea why almost nobody seems to know about it. My first novel is actually on the bestseller list for German sci-fi with only 40 copies sold.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu

by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 12:12:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 1)

How far down it?

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 12:17:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 1)

Sorry, I don't give away my name in web forums (as a general rule), not even here. But it's in the Top 10.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu

by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 12:33:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 1)

Oh I wasn't asking for anything specific, just was sitting thinking that you could be 15,375th on the bestseller list and still say I'm on the bestseller list ;-)

Still it depends how often you sell that 40 books whether you can make a living or not.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 12:38:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 1)

Ah, okay. Make a living on writing novels? Sounds great, but I don't think I'll ever be good enough.
If I was to write something that's really good sometime, I will go to a publisher and try it the proper way.

/estimated hourly wage so far: 3.8 cent.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu

by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 12:51:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 1)

That's the same attitude as my girlfriend, the selection of teaching books she's written always end up with her saying "If I knew when I started how little per hour I'd earn..."

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 12:58:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 1)

I know a publishing house for books to primary schools, it was a one-woman operation (she wrote the books) which over a twenty to thirty year period made her quite a few pennies. She died a while back but the operation is on-going and still making money. If your gf's books are in that area and if her copyright isn't owned by another company (MMM LLP sets forth) you could send me a copy of a couple, I'll pass them on(1).

(1)I have no say in editorial decisions --and so far the company only produces the woman's books.

(you could slip a CD into that package, too.(2))

((2)I only type that to encourage your inner and outer artist.(3))

(((3) If you can get it to me before, say, the end of the second week of Christmas I can send it on to another person who (I think) will be interested.(4)))

((((4) When I say "I think will be interested" I mean that I am supposed to be sending him something and I'm thinking that he might be interested in the combination)))

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 01:13:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 1)

I think it's different with novels, because you know you're actually writing them for yourself and it always pays off in this regard. What I wanted to say is that there's no way to make much money out of Lulu, publishing there is only good to get physical copies of something you've written or recorded (and psychologically, to finally be done with it).

I certainly wouldn't write teaching books if I wasn't able to get a fair compensation for the work, but there probably are people out there who think of that as a fun thing to do.

/really?

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu

by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 01:21:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (4.00 / 2)

Well it's a cheque that turns up every six months and pays for a couple of nights out.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 01:54:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (4.00 / 3)

Publishing is a marketing problem, not a printing problem.

Quite a lot of professionally published work isn't terribly good, so it's not as if professional publishers are effective gatekeepers. But their output sells (to the extent that it does) because they have the distribution networks needed to get books into bookshops, and the PR network needed to create a buzz.

So Lulu is not the answer. Self-publishing is a waste of time unless you have some way to do effective promotion. And in fact, people trust bookshops to offer them something which is better than average. It's almost impossible to create that experience on Lulu.

The people who do well out of self-publishing are the scammish 'get rich quick' '100 top seduction secrets' 'essential ways to wipe out bad credit' artists who sell PDFs direct from a website. There's usually a SPECIAL LOW PRICE TODAY ONLY!!!! tag somewhere near the bottom, the hardest of hard sell further up, and regular spam reminders afterwards.

It's rather vile and seedy content-wise, but it's much better at making money for the people who do it than publishing on Lulu. The overheads are much lower - the hosting cost of a few PDFs and a website is negligible - and with clever Google-fixing people come to the site, so a PR operation is unnecessary.

Obviously this model wouldn't work for ET-ish books.

ET-ish books could only be sold with an established name - ET Think Lab, etc.

Once the name is recognised, book sales become a natural development.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed Nov 28th, 2007 at 07:38:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 1)

I think this is simple enough:

For very few copies a service such as Lulu is quick and easy.

Example: I am in the process of producing an "ET Christmas Present" to myself. (It seems to be coming in around 25,000 words, and then there are lots of pics.) Once I have it ready (and once/if I get permission from the writer to publish), then I will buy the writer a copy, buy one for myself, sort of a "Here's a piece of ET to remind me for when the web (or ET) has moved on".

So, that's two copies. I'll tell people about it here, maybe that generates two more copies.

But...if there are X people (and what is X?) interested, then I would contact people such as Cambridge Publishing (or A.N. Other as recommended by anyone here) to see what rates I could get for larger print runs.

This proposed book is built from ET content. I would expect to publish it via MMM LLP (whatever that might mean or entail--I'll give a copy of the book to Paul, I doubt he read the original articles, so that's three copies ;) The marketing is a problem or an opportunity for any person or people who wish to see the book more widely distributed, or just get a copy for themselves.

Well, that's my take anyway.

For proposed publication runs in the thousands, then yes you will need some form of marketing team to identify and then adevertise the product a thousand (or say 500 for break even?) potential buyers.

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Wed Nov 28th, 2007 at 09:27:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (4.00 / 5)

I'm working on the basis that there's not much point in putting ET-type books together unless a fair few people - i.e. 1000 and upwards - are going to read them. Ideally some media interest would be a good thing too.

Giving stuff away for free only works online. I know someone who has given away >100,000 copies of a book about the music business. It's a good book, and it's been very influential as a free download.

As a paper project, he might have sold 10-100 copies.

Online, people find you. In physical print, you need to find them, which seems to be rather harder.

If you want to print for friends+family+a few left over, that's usually called vanity publishing, and is a different animal again.

Getting even a small print run of 500 is a major operation. 500 books is a big slab of wood pulp, and takes up a lot of space. In hardback it's heavy enough to significantly stress a domestic floor.

You really wouldn't want it in your home. Which is why publishers usually pay distributors to handle the physical logistics of moving that much dead wood around.

You can certainly self-publish at that scale, and people do - sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

But it needs a bit of forethought to make sure you can still get into your home after you've had the books delivered.

If we want to sell books it seems much easier to upload them as PDFs, set up a paypal account with voluntary donations and/or a fixed price, and point people at a print on demand service if (and only if) they want a hard copy.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed Nov 28th, 2007 at 09:30:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (4.00 / 2)

Thanks for the reply. My idea is a bit hazy but it might be worth teasing out separate strands (might as well do it here as anywhere)

Setting up in business, with the question on "busy". A lot of the critiquing here is about business methods and practices. One of the easiest criticisms from the right is: "Yeah, and which business did you set up today?" If we can agree that new forms of business need to be developed then I think it an interesting project for ET to ponder business models. The example that came to mind yesterday was "setting up an electrical system." To generate a lot of power is complex, but to see how the basic circuits work, to try out different energy sources etc. you can start with a basic circuit of some kind. I'd like to get my paws on a "real existing" business (no matter how small) just to see how (e.g.) the tax laws work. I think, also, that a "we work together" model (a business?) can be as ad-hoc and informal as one likes when the "we" is less than ten people. Above ten, though, it seems that there are economies of scale and/or new methods and/or dangers and/or etc... that I enjoy thinking about in the abstract but would also enjoy testing in the...material...in the less abstract...An experiment, then, in new forms of business (=economics).
Creating a physical book. Okay, let's call it a "Vanity Publishing" project. If it quacks like a duck etc. Because I'm planning on publishing other person or people's writing (only with his, her, their permision of course), then the "vanity" part is maybe not so vain, but let's go with the phrase. What I'd really like is a "non computer" element of ET, maybe in the same way that ETers enjoy gathering away from their computer screens (in various combinations and for various reasons.) Now that books can be created "on demand"--a new technology--then...what I'm thinking is that idea 1 can be incorporated with this: what is the best model for publishing "extended-word-projects". Is it .pdf? (The only one I've really read, I have to admit, was RAW's Prometheus Rising, which I printed out--100 pages of .pdf is too much for my eyeballs--may just be me.)
Examining (recycle, reuse!) the ET archive. The search facilities on scoop (I may have got this all wrong and would be very happy to be enlightened) are limited. I can search by one criterion, and I can choose one of two time periods (this month/everything). I'd like to be able to do more complex searches. I think the ET wiki idea has aspects of this, but it doesn't seem to be a well-used resource (again, I may be wrong on this, I haven't checked numbers.) A collation of ideas, so that people can refer to the "growing knowledge base"...something like that.
An ETer mentioned the sitemeter stats to me the other day. Here are the latest:

PAGE VIEWS

    Total    6,047,023
    Average Per Day    4,660
    Average Per Visit    4.2
    Last Hour    354
    Today    3,231
    This Week    32,622

http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=s21jerome

I can't work out how many "readers who don't post" that makes, but that silent (and hopefully enjoying themselves) audience somehow connect to 1), 2) and 3) above.

It's early days, maybe this idea (these ideas) of mine are just....pfff...but I like ideas and I like testing them against realities of various kinds...

Am I making any sense?

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Thu Nov 29th, 2007 at 05:33:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 1)

You are making much sense, and it does sound interesting. Experience is gained by doing and if the doing is worthwhile in itself then it is clearly worth it.

PDF + print on demand as TBG suggests sounds like the best way to publish, but getting the discussions into publishing shape is another thing. On that note, it is good to note that google can be used to search any site with the simple site:eurotrib.com included in the search terms.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Sun Dec 2nd, 2007 at 01:32:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 0)

Have you got your hands on a paperback? If so, what's the printing quality? (I was thinking of buying one (1) copy of a book to see the quality of the paper, binding, etc.)

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 12:33:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 0)

Printing and paper quality are standard, it looks 100% like the PDF you get when you publish it. Binding is not too good, I wouldn't recommend publishing a book with more than 400 pages. And the colors of the cover can be a little off. Anything else is just what you expect a book to be.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu

by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 12:40:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 0)

I'm thinking about 100 pages (lots of small print, maybe! Or okay, up to 200) so that should be okay. Have you seen any books with photos or drawings (not on the cover I mean)?

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 12:47:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 0)

this is the idea (in case you missed it); a book of photos by ETers might be a good physical product--if the printing quality is okay. 100 pages is @ 90 photos (ten each for nine photographers? One each for 90?), there could be a series...etc... (full colour would cost more than £6-£7, I expect.)

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 12:54:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 1)

Only as PDF. I'll send you one in a minute.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu

by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 12:56:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: OT To A Visual Type (none / 1)

Whgat's it about and why would we want to read it?

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 12:41:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: It's just a hook (4.00 / 2)

there are few neat compartments in the functions of the brain that can be labelled.

Autism is a pretty distinct disorder. Aspergers less so, which definitely exists in a gray area, but at the "darker" end it's pretty clear that it isn't something that is taught. Somebody here posted a youtube link to a woman talking about what it's like to have autism a while back. Her experience was definitely not something you can teach, such as the way some people are taught to live without emotions or ethics that britguy was referring to.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 12:22:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: It's just a hook (4.00 / 4)

I posted that. She has Asperger's, and she says (accurately) that it's "different for everyone who has it; there's no one defining quality."

I have known several families with autistic children. Children who are diagnosed autistic are evaluated on "a spectrum," which attempts to measure the degree of autism. The most severely autistic cannot speak or function independently, while people with the mildest cases can hold down jobs and lead somewhat normal lives. But even two people who are at roughly equal points on the spectrum might have very different manifestations of their autism.

by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Tue Nov 27th, 2007 at 12:44:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Don't be a silly quant! | 68 comments (68 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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