Books

The Case for Traditional Book Publishing

In The Four Pathways of Modern Book Publishing, I described the four main routes to publication for writers in the digital age. After considering all these factors, I’ve chosen to pursue the most traditional publishing route, for six main reasons (from most to least important): Credibility and authority that comes with a big name publisher…

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The Four Pathways of Modern Book Publishing

I’ve spent the past couple months immersed in the world of nonfiction book publishing, trying to deeply understand the state of the industry. I’ve read dozens of articles and books, spoken to experienced agents and editors, and authors ranging from New York Times bestsellers to self-published writers. I’ve found that the choice between “traditional publishing”…

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Science Fiction Books I’ve Read

I’ve listed below all the science fiction books I’ve read that I can remember, in no particular order. I’ve included the names of authors, and any other titles they’ve written directly below their first mention. See my 2-part article What I Learned About the Future by Reading 100 Science Fiction Books for my insights and takeaways…

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Emergent Strategy: Organizing for Social Justice

When I moved from San Francisco to Oakland in 2014, I was just trying to pay cheaper rent. I never expected to be influenced by the movements that flow through Oakland’s veins: the movements for social justice, for environmental justice, and for black liberation. I’ve since had the privilege of working with some of the…

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New Book: Extend Your Mind

I recently published my new ebook, a compilation of 19 Praxis posts from 2017, on the Amazon Kindle store. Click here to view it on Amazon (Affiliate Link) Read the Foreword below Foreword from Extend Your Mind This book is made up of 19 essays (or long-form blog posts) published in 2017 on the blog. 2017…

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You Need a Budget: 13 Parallels Between Money and Productivity

I recently read and took notes on You Need a Budget (YNAB-Affiliate Link), a popular book on personal finance and budgeting (with accompanying software for managing budgets) by Jesse Mecham. My interest in this book is three-fold: I’m terrible at budgeting and need help I want to borrow principles and methods for managing money to help people…

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The Future of Ebooks

I’ve published a few ebooks over the past year, and have plans for a couple more before the end of the year. In contrast to fears about the “end of reading,” my self-publishing experiences have led me to believe that we’re in the midst of a transformational revolution in reading. But it remains to be…

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A Pattern Recognition Theory of Mind

In 2006, inventor Ray Kurzweil released the book The Singularity Is Near (Amazon Affiliate Link), with a bold prediction that by the year 2049 we’d enter a “technological singularity.” Around that time, he argued, the pace of improvement in technology would become a runaway phenomenon that would transform all aspects of human civilization. The word “singularity”…

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Trekonomics: The Economics of Post-Scarcity

I recently finished listening to the audiobook of Trekonomics: The Economics of Star Trek (Amazon Affiliate Link), by Manu Saadia. It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had thinking about economics, due to the outstanding premise: What if we treated the Star Trek universe as if it was real, and used it to draw…

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Praxis Anti-Book Club Instructions

Here are the step-by-step instructions for the Anti-Book Club for easy reference. And so you can run your own Anti-Book Club if you want. I’ll update this article with future improvements as I discover them. The Premise Start by reading my original article introducing the concept and why it’s important. Here’s a short version: Books…

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Praxis Anti-Book Club version 2.0

A couple months ago we launched the first Anti-Book Club. It was a phenomenal success by my criteria, with 41 books on productivity, creativity, learning, and related topics summarized over the course of just a month. More importantly, the feedback was almost unanimously positive. It ranged from “interesting experiment” to “I’ll never read any other…

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