When I started writing Davos Newbies nearly eight years ago (o frabjous day), no one, and I mean no one, in the then-unnamed blogosphere wrote about the things that truly interested me. So my magpie habits in areas like economics, international relations, technology and obscure books seemed a good fit. Now I find that just about whenever I think of something that seems Davos Newbies-like, someone else has already written it.
Viz my earlier item on FT.com and Felix Salmon. Now how about Dani Rodrik and this:
Bad books need to be trashed even if you are a fellow traveler, more or less. That is the main point made by Emmanuel (via Trade Diversion) in relation to Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, which is a truly bad book. I am glad somebody else thinks so, because I was pretty disheartened by the kid gloves with which Joe Stiglitz handled the book in his own review.
My point exactly, if I had been swift enough to come to the point in print. Clearly I face a simple choice:
- Find a new niche. Given the unbelievable diversity of the blogosphere, that’s unlikely. I’ve never been a specialist.
- Be quicker on the draw. Possible, but the welcome pressures of my paying job may make it difficult.
- Be content with lack of originality.
The last strategy seems my likely destination. I can console myself with Bob Sutton‘s Law:
If you think you have a new idea, you are wrong. Someone probably already had it. This idea isn’t original either; I stole it from someone else.