Linking Back: Rich Kids, India, and Virtual Worlds

This week, our Linking Back feature will be on Thursday instead of Friday because I'll be out of town for the next few days. Look for new posts to be up sometime Monday or Tuesday of next week. Cheers!

- A great post on virtual worlds from a top blogger I just discovered.

- If the Freakonomics bloggers read the above post, they wouldn't have had this post.

- The inevitable knee jerk response to the bridge collapse. Here's one of many pieces I have issues with: "Many independent experts say that even with robust economic and productivity growth, America simply cannot grow its way out of these entitlement-program problems." That may be true, but I wish the author had provided some sort of data/links to support this claim. From the City Journal.

- It's true, your views are very much influenced by your perspective and experience. From Free Exchange, the Economist blog.

- First they have more money than us, now kids? From Joanne Jacobs.

- On the dominance of egos, from the little known Stumbling and Mumbling blog.

- We've visited this topic many times on the CK Tutors blog and elsewhere. Just pointing out that the NY Times is now recycling (intellectual) material.

- Sometimes being abroad isn't always peachy, from my friend (and one time CK Tutors employee) Rizwan.

Due to the (relative) popularity of the Linking Back feature, we here at CK Tutors are considering adding a similar feature but on a daily, rather than weekly, basis. Any suggestions for the name of the daily feature are welcomed.

Caveat About Freakonomics (and that type of thinking)

From a WSJ article today:

"Do unhealthy people drink diet soda? Does diet soda make people unhealthy?Those are some of the questions raised by a 'surprising' new study that links consumption of soft drinks -- both the sugared and diet variety -- with a higher risk for a range of obesity-related health problems."

Is anyone else finding more and more articles/essays/books about two seemingly unrelated topics being *gasp* actually related? Or that there are connections that people seem to have never seen before but *gasp* the author shows us the way?

I know Freakonomics was a hit (and I liked the book) but it seems like economists and now everyday journalists are copying (or maybe just over utilizing) the "Freakonomics style". Maybe I've just been seeing more of this and the WSJ article on diet soda sort of pushed me over the top, but it really does seem like the "Freakonomics style" is becoming (or has become) all the rage. There have been recent books published such as "Freedomnomics" that go against the "Freakonomics style" (though, honestly, I don't like Freedomnomics either) but there are many more books that go with the style such as "More Sex is Safer Sex" and "Discover Your Inner Economist". It might just be me, but I'm starting to get sick of these cutesie copycat books.

My theory behind the proliferation of such books/essays/articles is that Freakonomics was SUCH a hit (and the publishing industry is so hard pressed for these rare successes) that when something like Freakonomics comes along most publishers say, "Ooh! Ooh! A money cow! We need to milk this for all its worth!" and then some authors come along and say, "Ooh! Ooh! The spotlight!" and then you get some mediocre books that don't quite live up to the original but sell more than enough copies to generate handsome profits all around. That's what we're seeing and fortunately we're reaching the point of saturation, which means we shouldn't be seeing these copycats much longer.

My point behind this whole post is that I'm disappointed with a general lack of originality. This applies not only to books, but also to movies, restaurants, and many other business concepts. I'm disappointed that it's better (more profitable?) nowadays to be a copycat than it is to strike out on your own and take a chance.

Freakonomics Student Guide and Other Tidbits

Check out the Freakonomics Student's Guide here - it's definitely worth a look if you liked the book. And if you haven't read Freakonomics (or at least thumbed through it in a Barnes and Noble) then go check the book out first!

And other useful blogs to check out to keep your mind active:

- The few posts on the Small Giants blog.

- The Freakonomics blog.

- The Marginal Revolution blog.

These are just a few of the blogs I read everyday (throughout the day) though the Small Giants blog hasn't been kept up to date. Hope that helps!

Linking Back: College Admissions, Donations, Graduations, and more

- The Freakonomics Blog pointed out the recent increased volume of articles and reporting in the NY Times talking about the difficulty of getting into college.

- CNN reports that a donor gave $100 million to UChicago... anonymously.

- Here's a good article from the WSJ on sleep (or lack thereof) having an influence on performance.

- A dad, son, and granddaughter are graduating together.

- Here's a great post on special ed. students and the honor roll. A sampling: I think it would be nice if we could find a way to reward people... without pretending that her performance is on par with kids who are taking much tougher classes.

- Joanne Jacobs touches on the 5 year plans... in high schools. I have many friends who are graduating Georgia Tech and other schools in 5 years, but I'd never heard of such high amounts of high schoolers doing the same.

- Here's a new set of wealthy investors getting involved in education as reported in Whitney Tilson's School Reform Blog.