Read

For once, a Malcolm Gladwell piece ("Talent Grab," Oct. 11 New Yorker) isn't online for free, and it's actually a really well-balanced one that combines a hard-nosed look at why we pay more for talent these days (looking at baseball as a good example but then branching out to CEOs, etc.) with some qualms about that same issue. In other words, do you take the side of the baseball-playing millionaires or the even greedier baseball-team owners? Basically, Gladwell's trying to view the widening gap between rich and poor in this country through the lens of compensation for talent (as well as pointing out some problems, like overpaying talent), but I'm not sure that it works as well as the older lenses (changes in tax policy, for example).

Ryan Lizza's article in the same issue on the failure of climate-change reform isn't behind the wall, and it's a marvelous but sad story, so you should at least go read that, esp if you like tales of political deal-making.

Philip Gourevitch has a "critic at large" piece that I wish were available on the failure of humanitarian aid--and not just in particular cases but genuinely examining the possibility that humanitarian aid may actually facilitate and escalate the horribleness of conflicts. Whoof. I mean, that is a hard thing to read, and it makes some excellent points. If you're going to get food aid when you start cutting off people's arms, why wouldn't you just leap straight to that point? And what's the alternative? I believe what Gourevitch is saying (and what the books he's discussing are perhaps hinting at) is that the problem with nongovernmental organizations is that they're not accountable, and while governmental organizations may also screw up royally, at least you can point to politics and potentially hang someone out to dry based on his/her interests. Is this a little like my anti-charity argument (i.e., it's all well and good to give to charity, but governments shouldn't be encouraging it to the detriment of funding worthy programs because it's not a reliable source of income)?

And then there's James Surowiecki's article on procrastination, widely distributed around the web and joked about (e.g., ha ha I meant to blog about this earlier, but...). I believe I've mostly overcome that problem, and I promise it's not that hard. Balance what needs to be done with what you would merely like to get done. Set small, achievable goals. Be realistic about what can be accomplished in a given amount of time. Exercise your willpower. Focus on the joy of getting things done. None of this means you can't procrastinate sometimes, but try not to and it'll keep getting easier to get things done on time.

Also also, Sasha Frere-Jones on Pavement, a band he doesn't like all that much. Is it that they're too laid back? I don't know. I'm a latecomer to Pavement, and I think they're pretty good, but I'm not going to get all huffy about the article. If he prefers Nirvana, well, so do I. Pavement is fine, but they're not my band of the 90s.

I'm not even going to link the Alice Munro story because it's behind the wall and, for her, it's not tippy-top. She can do better.