The fallacy of echo chambers: is everyone really mad at everyone?

The fallacy of echo chambers: is everyone really mad at everyone?

By Ira Nathenson on August 29, 2010

Bob Greene makes a timely post at CNN comparing today’s social climate to that of 1955. He discusses a July 4, 1955 cover story from Life Magazine that paints the era as a time of utopian happiness. Greene asks whether we were really that happy then, and conversely, whether we are as angry now as [...]

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Social networking word-of-the-day: “thinvisibility”

By Ira Nathenson on August 10, 2010

A new word for Facebookers and social networkers who cavalierly post embarrassing information about themselves to the web: thinvisibility:  Here’s a starting definition: Thinvisibility: n. Being neither completely visible nor completely invisible. Being a tiny, shiny needle in a haystack of information overload. Being invisible to everyone except data aggregators and digital preservationists such as Google, [...]

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Animals, information, and language

By Ira Nathenson on August 9, 2010

This summer has been a wonderful three months of reading and writing. Currently, I’m reading Alex Wright’s Glut: Mastering Information through the Ages, a book about information and information overload, a topic of long interest to me. Wright’s book includes interesting discussions of just how basic information management techniques are to humans and others, including how [...]

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Are we too wired? (Yes.)

By Ira Nathenson on August 9, 2010

Is too much of our life wired? Below Reihan Salam and Rev Grossman discuss on bloggingheads.tv the addictive quality of social networking: IMHO, information overload is addictive, and it doesn’t necessarily lead to knowledge or wisdom. I don’t know about others, but the biggest thing that clears my mind is getting away from the computer, [...]

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(Batman’s) advice for new law students, part VI: “always mind your surroundings”

By Ira Nathenson on March 10, 2010

One common mistake of new law students is conclusory argumentation, as discussed in this post on avoiding “Monty Python” argumentation.  Another common mistake is incomplete analysis.  An essay answer might include analysis that scratches the surface but doesn’t explore deeper.  But it’s crucial to consider the strengths and weaknesses of any argument, and to explore [...]

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Abe Lincoln, lawyer

By Ira Nathenson on February 14, 2009

Some other comments on Lincoln.  This week, a Civ Pro profs listserve distributed the text of notes apparently prepared by Lincoln for a lecture at the Ohio State & Union Law School in Cleveland in 1856. Many of Lincoln’s observations are as timely today as they were over 150 years ago.  Below, I add headings; [...]

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