Last November I said I wanted to write a book on a complex subject, but found it hard to simultaneously work out what I think on the subject, and to also write so as to engage a wide audience well. I wondered why book authors don’t do this in two steps:
Usually hard to get your worst enemies to give you early feedback though.
You would probably have to pay them. (Wouldn't the fee be like a bet: a signal that you're willing to accept the strongest critique—whether from fate or from your harshest critics?) Probably not a high fee: getting money from Robin Hanson would be high status in itself.
You economists are always trying to eat a free lunch.
I just finished a book where my co-authors and I did precisely this. We got some good to middlin' feedback. But i think we'd have done better to submit it to our worst enemies or proxies thereof.
I in no way qualify, but I'll buy the book when it is published. Hope you'll be willing share this draft with a proof of purchase at that time. I'd be interested in reading both.
Wikipedia knows a lot, so you could know a lot just from it. Of course it would depend on what you'd read and how well you'd absorbed it. But the high quality of your comments over the years make you an easy yes.
[Added 2:30 pm Sept. 22] You seem unaware that by creating an application process--like for a job--you are "constituting" a Hierarchical relationship. ((T.S. Rai and A.P. Fiske, Moral psychology is relationship regulation (2011) Psychological Review, 118: 57 ‒ 75.) -- http://www.irsp.ucla.edu/Im...
You're biasing your feedback in the direction of the sort of "feedback" one gives one's boss in Hierarchical relationships (by activating Authority/Ranking).
You're also restricting your applicant pool by appealing to people who want to enter a Hierarchical relationship, but some such restriction is perhaps inevitable.
I would really like to see your manuscript, but unfortunately my knowledge is mostly of the sort you can find on Wikipedia. Some good candidates would be Razib Khan, who among other things may have hit on the reversion from farmer to forager norms before you, and Greg Cochran. The latter might not take you seriously enough to read it though. I assume you've already given Tyler Cowen a copy.
Usually hard to get your worst enemies to give you early feedback though.
You would probably have to pay them. (Wouldn't the fee be like a bet: a signal that you're willing to accept the strongest critique—whether from fate or from your harshest critics?) Probably not a high fee: getting money from Robin Hanson would be high status in itself.
You economists are always trying to eat a free lunch.
I agree that is generally a good strategy. Usually hard to get your worst enemies to give you early feedback though.
I just finished a book where my co-authors and I did precisely this. We got some good to middlin' feedback. But i think we'd have done better to submit it to our worst enemies or proxies thereof.
I in no way qualify, but I'll buy the book when it is published. Hope you'll be willing share this draft with a proof of purchase at that time. I'd be interested in reading both.
BTW I think Robin undersells the book some - I enjoyed reading the draft I read!
Fixed.
"think you quality" -> "think you qualify"
Usually I'd think, at least if your subject was something relevant.
Wikipedia knows a lot, so you could know a lot just from it. Of course it would depend on what you'd read and how well you'd absorbed it. But the high quality of your comments over the years make you an easy yes.
A Ph.D. isn't necessary; is it sufficient?
[Added 2:30 pm Sept. 22] You seem unaware that by creating an application process--like for a job--you are "constituting" a Hierarchical relationship. ((T.S. Rai and A.P. Fiske, Moral psychology is relationship regulation (2011) Psychological Review, 118: 57 ‒ 75.) -- http://www.irsp.ucla.edu/Im...
You're biasing your feedback in the direction of the sort of "feedback" one gives one's boss in Hierarchical relationships (by activating Authority/Ranking).
You're also restricting your applicant pool by appealing to people who want to enter a Hierarchical relationship, but some such restriction is perhaps inevitable.
I would really like to see your manuscript, but unfortunately my knowledge is mostly of the sort you can find on Wikipedia. Some good candidates would be Razib Khan, who among other things may have hit on the reversion from farmer to forager norms before you, and Greg Cochran. The latter might not take you seriously enough to read it though. I assume you've already given Tyler Cowen a copy.