For the past 4 days I have been in attendance at the Book Expo America.
Today at the BEA I saw a few fanatically fantastical presentations on inter-web related themes. I had the very good fortune to see talks by Thomas Friedman, Jeff Bezos, Chris Anderson, and other fascinating speakers. As some of you may know Thomas Friedman became wildly successful with his 2006 book “The World is Flat“. Today he made a very polished presentation on the topics discussed in his new book “Hot, Flat, and Crowded“. Here is mediocre photo taken by moi in a room with lame lighting.
Jeff Bezos is my new idol. As the Chief Executive Officer of Amazon he made a surprising impression on me. I don’t know what I expected, but I was presented with a smart and unpretentious character. On the left side of the photo is Chris Anderson. He is the current editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine.
The BEA functions something like the Cannes Film Fest (I assume from my tremendously under-researched permissible assumptions). You are presented with a menu that displays all the talks and speakers that take place during the day. Then you choose your breakfast, brunch, snack, lunch, luncheon, snack, hors d’oeuvres, dinner, cheese, wine, desert & sacrificial goat. At the end of the day your brain is cramped with information like creme inside a double glazed dough nut. Info=Yummm.
Lastly, I would like to leave you with this socially perplexing sign that I found at a rest stop off the I-5.
Seeing that sign really put me back into my comfort zone. Cough Cough…
“If we are going to stay the same we will have to change” - Thomas Friedman
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It’s very kind of that woman in the sign to help that disabled man…although it appears that she is merely standing beside him. Socially perplexing, indeed!
I just checked out a review of _The World is Flat_; it sounds practical and timely. I don’t know if you recall, but I think I’ve mentioned a site that you might be interested in. The site has a daily blog feed, articles, links, and a few “others” touching on subjects such as a collapse of ‘the System’ and post-apocalyptic life. As well, it focuses on weaknesses and strengths of current industrial life. The site is: http://www.ranprieur.com. Perhaps I am such a huge fan of Ran Prieur that I think you’d find him interesting, however there’s the site for you to explore or not at your leisure.
Love from home,
Isaac
PS: Wonderful quote! That’s a prime example of how information is akin to food.