Just figured out recently I'm in the cow path business.

You create the cow path before you pave it.

It's a bit like digging a hole so you can fill it up again.

And when you're in the cow path business you unfortunately often step in cow shit. Occupational hazard.

Looked it up on Google and found out that some people think you shouldn't pave cow paths. I think they need to take another look at how innovation actually happens, not how the would like to think it does. Imho, of course ymmv. (I don't really believe this, but..)

 9/13/2011; 1:23:13 PM.   .

Some people have charisma, and I know my liberal friends are going to scream at me for this, but it's true -- Rick Perry has boatloads of it.

You just can't keep your eyes off him. And when he talks, you have to listen. It's fun. But if you really listen to the words, he's not actually saying anything. I parodied him on Twitter last night during the debate:

Rick Perry: "I'm just going to say words for a while. Thank you."

Then watch him while Mitt Romney is talking about something, anything -- it doesn't matter. He's either nodding his head in agreement saying "that's right" or looking like he's on some really good drugs, giggling and laughing, but not in a mean way. It's like he's having fun up there. Taking it all in. Thinking about how he's going to vote for Mitt. You'd swear they were best friends.

And Perry really brings out the best in Romney. Makes him seem human. Again, in a good way.

I think some people just have charm. Bill Clinton is one of them, as is Rick Perry. That's why it was funny when Clinton called him "a handsome rascal." In a very admiring way.

Now, I don't think it would be a very good idea to elect Rick Perry. We live in a complicated world. We really need someone more like Obama, a technocrat, a student. And in the end all the compromise Obama wants to make may work out. Esp if you listen to the Republican leaders in Congress these days. But I can't help but wonder if they aren't playing Lucy to (what they hope will be) Obama's Charlie Brown. You know the act they repeat over and over with the football.

But I just wanted to say, that's why Perry might get elected. People like to vote for people who make them feel good. And that's something Perry has. Of course Perry is either an idiot, or lazy, or is a lazy idiot. Or completely utterly devoid of integrity. None of that is good, in reality, regardless of how we feel.

PS: Dana Milbank, a political pundit with no charisma, thinks it matters that Perry is an "empty suit." He's an optimist.

PPS: David Frum: "Should Perry reach the presidency, his lack of intellectual resource will have consequences for the nation." Yup.

 9/13/2011; 8:44:34 AM.   .

I've been at NYU for 1.5 years, and it just hit me -- I don't have a blog here. Now I do!

http://journalism.nyu.edu/publishing/davewiner/

This is where we're going to try out some of the ideas in my Educating the Journo-Programmer piece.

1. Journalists manage their own infrastructure.

2. Using rivers to support the editorial process.

3. Working with other institutions.

4. Etc.

The "etc" part is most interesting. When you combine tech with writing you get new stuff. And we haven't really begun yet to really fit technology to acts of journalism. Let's get the ball rolling.

So if you're an educator, at NYU or another fine academic institution, please work with us. I want to share all that we learn, and the faster we boot this up, the better.

 9/13/2011; 7:28:55 AM.   .