The Posts That Could Reverberate
While not necessarily the most read, some posts this year I think will have legs
Last week, I published a list of the top 12 posts from 2021 in “The Geyser,” a list derived from readership data.
Today, I’m picking the posts that to me had that extra something — a feeling of a consequential insight, a “putting my finger on something” zing. We’ll see if these matter as much in the future as I think they might.
The Geyser — Hot Takes & Deep Thinking on the Info EconomyIs Open Science All About "Me"?The major stakeholder in biomedical science is the public. Open science seeks to bring more of the public into the scientific process, making it transparent, democratizing it, and opening it to scrutiny in order to increase trust and deepen the scientific understanding across society…Read more3 months ago · 2 likes · Kent Anderson
The Geyser — Hot Takes & Deep Thinking on the Info EconomyOA’s Second Order EffectsAn article in the Indian Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery made the rounds recently, reaching me the same morning I’d outlined this post. Om Prakash Yavada asks if OA is the way forward, and worries that so far it has introduced downsides into publishing that can’t be ignored…Read more4 months ago · 2 likes · Kent Anderson
The Geyser — Hot Takes & Deep Thinking on the Info EconomyOn Cats and Bags, Horses and BarnsYesterday, I was reminded how a splinter group affiliated with scholarly publishing simply refuses to accept that society has expectations around what we produce and how we produce it. Society expects works from our brands to have been carefully scrutinized by experts who will be accountable for each paper’s long-term validity…Read more5 months ago · 6 likes · Kent Anderson
The Geyser — Hot Takes & Deep Thinking on the Info EconomyDemocratizing ConfusionIn preparing to give a presentation today at the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) Professional Peer Group Meeting, I found myself revisiting a 1991 quote from the editors of NEJM, which I featured in a post in August about how the HIV pandemic created tensions between the media and medical journals…Read more5 months ago · 1 like · 1 comment · Kent Anderson
The Geyser — Hot Takes & Deep Thinking on the Info EconomyDisruptive vs. Transgressive Reading Max Chafkin’s compelling new book about Peter Thiel — “The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power” — has brought to mind a distinction between “disruptive” and “transgressive.” Your smartphone is disruptive. For example, the camera takes great pictures, making it unnecessary for you to carry a separate device. It allows you to share the photos, making development labs superfluous for all but a handful of photos (and maybe some gifts). You still get to take pictures, share pictures, and even develop pictures…Read more6 months ago · Kent Anderson
The Geyser — Hot Takes & Deep Thinking on the Info EconomyWhat’s Our Role Now?We — I certainly include myself — expected digital technology to broaden and deepen the marketplace of ideas. There would be more hypotheses, more checkers, more access to expertise. . . . At worst, we assumed the digital ecosystem would be neutral. . . . Unfortunately, we forgot that staying in touch with reality depends on rules and institutions. We f…Read more8 months ago · 2 likes · Kent Anderson
The Geyser — Hot Takes & Deep Thinking on the Info EconomyHas Publishing Had Its Insurrection? Have we experienced our own insurrection? Here’s the scenario — a small group of oligarchs and their allies invade publishing with ideas about “disruption” and the Internet, portraying these as populist and “democratizing” ideas, when they are in fact self-serving techno-utopianism designed to further consolidate power and influence for a few rich and po…Read more9 months ago · 8 likes · Kent Anderson
The Geyser — Hot Takes & Deep Thinking on the Info EconomyContemplating the Toll of InjusticeDo you and Lisa Simpson have something in common? In the Simpsons’ universe, Lisa has what some psychologists call “justice sensitivity” — she recognizes injustices more quickly, processes their implications more readily, and responds more viscerally when she perceives them. As a result, unjust situations prove more stressful for her, and leave a deeper…Read morea year ago · 1 like · Kent Anderson
I hope to keep interesting ideas and analyses coming your way in 2022. I already have a few queued up. The ideas above may help shape the perspective you get — or maybe some new insights will emerge. Either way, it should be interesting . . .