Alexandra Carmichael

October 16, 2011

Here’s an assortment of links we like this week. Hope you enjoy them!

• Dennis Ritchie, in Memoriam, by Andrew Binstock. Includes this quote from the revered co-author of UNIX and C: “Another danger is that commercial pressures of one sort or another will divert the attention of the best thinkers from real innovation to exploitation of the current fad — from prospecting to mining a known lode. These pressures manifest themselves not only in the disappearance of faculty into industry, but also in the conservatism that overtakes those with well-paying investments — intellectual or financial — in a given idea.”
• Steve Dean of QS NYC is teaching a class called DIY Health at ITP – his reading list includes The Primacy of Self-Regulation in Health Promotion.
• The Law of Unintended Consequences in Health Policy, by Ian Eslick: Overconfidence in applying research leads to public health disasters.
• The Acceleration of Addictiveness by Paul Graham: “We’ll increasingly be defined by what we say no to.”
• Healthinnovations on the BBC World panel on the Danish ‘Fat Tax’ by Michealle Petersen: An objection to hearing only from “experts” voice talking about obesity.
• Seth Roberts article in BoingBoing: Grandmother knows best about Crohn’s disease: “Those who say it can’t be done shouldn’t interrupt those doing it.”
• Bartleby’s Occupation of Wall Street by Hanna Gersen: An essay on the first occupation of Wall Street, in 1853.
• The Maladapted Mind: Classic Readings in Evolutionary Psycho-pathology. This is a mind-bending book explaining the origins and adaptive benefits of various mental health challenges.
• Anonymity and the Internet, by Bruce Schneier (2010): Why ending anonymity is impossible and why trying is bad.