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'Plug In Better': A Manifesto - Alexandra Samuel - Technology. The trick isn't to unplug from our devices -- it's to unplug from the distractions, information overload, and trash that make us unhappy. A world ruled by spin, in which political influence lasts only until the next embarrassing YouTube video. Industries starved of creative, deep thinking, as focused effort gives way to incessant multitasking. Households made up of neglectful, distracted parents and vacant, screen-glazed children. Human beings reduced to fast-clicking thumbs, their attention spans no longer than 140 characters.

That's the future we hear about from Nicholas Carr, Sherry Turkle, and The New York Times's Your Brain on Computers series, which tell us that our growing time online is diminishing both our individual intellects and our collective capacity for connection. If this dystopian vision drives the call to unplug, there's something more personal motivating those who heed that call. The new unplugging doesn't require you to quit Facebook or throw out your iPhone. Recent College Graduates Wait for Their Real Careers to Begin. Fast-Food Scholarship - Do Your Job Better. By Lynn Worsham As a long-time editor of a scholarly journal, I review a substantial amount of new scholarship in my field, almost daily.

While many academics in the humanities and social sciences are still producing substantive, rigorous, high-quality scholarship, I have noticed a growing trend that disturbs me and others devoted to rigorous research: Too many academics—veterans and neophytes alike—are producing scholarship that appears to have traded careful, methodical, fully developed intellectual work for quick and dirty publication. I have come to think of such half-baked work as "fast-food scholarship. " It's characterized by several factors: Minimal, selective citation. As an editor and manuscript reviewer for several journals and university presses, I have reviewed innumerable submissions that contain few citations—even though the areas in question have a rich body of published scholarship. Here's an example: I recently reviewed a submitted manuscript on a specialized subject. Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Career Advice, Events and Jobs.

Michael Ellsberg, Author of Books and Manifestos | Announcing: My first e-book « Hoehn’s Musings. If you’re coming from Ramit’s site, welcome. Here are a few posts that I think you will particularly enjoy: And if you really like reading advice on careers and entrepreneurship, you’ll want to subscribe to this blog. I write about those topics pretty frequently. To my current readers… Several of you have emailed me, saying, “I noticed you tag a lot of articles as ‘rpgrad’ in Delicious.

What does that mean?” Well, here’s your answer: I’ve written an e-book called “Recession-Proof Graduate.” What started as a guest post turned into a 30-page tirade on how poorly most people approach their careers. You can also download it: Recession-Proof Graduate (right-click + ‘Save As’) All the articles I’ve been tagging ‘rpgrad’ will be used in some way or another when I start writing the real book sometime next year.

So why did I release an incomplete precursor to the actual book? First off, it’s been depressing to see how many smart, ambitious, and capable graduates are basically lost right now.