Business

Because Tim Kreider's writing is the gift that keeps on giving, I’m writing a series of posts in response to several issues that he raised in his op-ed in the New York Times called “Slaves of the Internet, Unite.” In Part 1, I discussed how trading free work for exposure isn’t always a con: Sometimes it’s just how the business works. In Part 2, I discussed some of the economics … [Read more...] about Freebies, Part 3 — It’s Not All About You

I'm writing a series of posts in response to several issues that author Tim Kreider raised in his op-ed in the New York Times called "Slaves of the Internet, Unite." In Part 1, I discussed how trading free work for exposure isn't always a con: Sometimes it's just how the business works. In this part, I'd like to discuss some of the economics of pricing mental labor.Kreider … [Read more...] about Freebies, Part 2 – Pricing Creative Labor

A while back, a lot of people were linking to author Tim Kreider's op-ed in the New York Times called "Slaves of the Internet, Unite." Despite its apparent reasonableness, it bothered me for some reason. It took me a while to figure out why (and then a while to find time to write), but I think I can explain.Kreider's complaint starts reasonably enough: Not long ago, I … [Read more...] about Freebies, Part 1 – Just Business

This seems to have been the week for bashing marketers who send silly email messages in the legal blogosphere (although Brian and Scott don't really need a special week for that), and I need to exercise my brain on the new blogging software, so I think I'll do a little bashing of my own.I received an interestingly self-refuting email a few days ago from a salesman named … [Read more...] about In Which Someone Mistakes Me For a Successful Business

I've been meaning to write something about the recent criticism of Apple's use of the Foxxconn factory in China, but now I don't have to, because my co-blogger Rogier has just posted a great piece about it over at Nobody's Business. So go check out The iPhone owner's guide to liberal hypocrisy. I guarantee that it is far more interesting than my obligatory post on the State of … [Read more...] about iPhones, Foxxconn, and Hypocrisy