Comments on Humblefacture: New Cheap Book Looks at High Cost of Mass Producti...

In the Janet Maslin piece, I think she makes only ...

2009-07-20T13:43:44.362-07:00

In the Janet Maslin piece, I think she makes only a passing connection between the two books (neither of which, I must confess, I have actually read yet).

She mentions the fact that both authors cite an experiment by the behavioral economist Dan Ariely and offer different versions of it.

I did read Ariely's book ("Predictably Irrational") and I thought he did an excellent job of illuminating some very recognizable irrational behaviors that I know I have succumbed to more than once.

in any event, as I recall, Ariely did many variations on the "free" chocolate experiment. Maslin seemed to have more issues with the scholarship and presentation in both "Cheap" and "Free" than with their basic theses.

It seems to me that both topics are worthy of exposition and reflection.

Curiously, yesterday's NY Times Book Review has a much more glowing review of "Cheap" by Laura Shapiro:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Shapiro-t.html

It's interesting that so many people are making th...

2009-07-15T22:12:18.576-07:00

It's interesting that so many people are making the connection between "Cheap" and "Free" -- In reality, the similarity of the titles is very superficial. One of the books (Cheap) is discussing the cultural and social consequences of the economic metric by which we measure products. She may also suggest an alternative decision framework which could have different consequences. The other book (Free) looks at the next logical step for our current economy, particularly our economy of ideas. Anderson is hardly arguing that IKEA will ever be free, or use free as a large part of it's business.

The two concepts can even co-exist. Indeed, Humblefacture advocates the freeing of the technical descriptions of products so that they can be built more locally, more carefully, and therefore, LESS cheaply, from an overall quality standpoint.

There is also a review in the NY Times of her book...

2009-07-15T07:13:12.479-07:00

There is also a review in the NY Times of her book by Janet Maslin:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/books/06maslin.html

She is not so enamored of it, and the review pairs it with Chris (WIRED) Anderson's "Free."