There is so much mediocrity in the world, and mediocre things can, and are, popular. Why try harder?
Every author secretly thinks their books are uniquely special, but the vast majority of books don’t sell. I haven’t been blogging regularly for eight months, and I still get urgent emails from authors, wondering why their sales are slumping. They ask if it’s their covers, or if the market is crashing, or if they aren’t doing the right kind of marketing.
But none of them ever ask if they self-pubbed too soon, before the book was Grade A. Writers are a pretty insecure bunch, but I’ve never met one who blames their sales on their bad writing.
I gotta say, it’s seductive to think I could self-pub these three books instantly, make some money, not worry about the anticipated three star average (I encourage writers to not look at their reviews, and I usually don’t), and immediately move on to something I know will sell better.
But I won’t do that. I’ll put in the time and make these books better. Money is nice. Having more time is nice. However, the nicest thing of all is having pride in my work.
When the scores were revealed, the classroom of middle school literacy teachers was everything but hopeful. “Did they even try?” one teacher wondered about her students. The team was disappointed and defeated. After a year of following the curriculum to fidelity, according to the mock-state test data, our efforts meant nothing. Source: Intrinsic Motivation vs….
Economists expect that millions of American jobs are going to be replaced by automation in the coming decades. But where will those job losses take place? Which areas will be hardest hit? Much of the focus regarding automation has been on the Rust Belt. There, many workers have been replaced by machines, and the number…
Google is pushing their machine learning to new and interesting processes, and is now applying their AI to Google Photos. New features Google can now find older photos of recently photographed people, making it easy to remember those moments with friends and family. Google photos can now put together an album of a subject of…
Then, just to add to the confusion, management decided that we should have two student intakes: one in August/September (the traditional starting time for new students), and one in February. This meant that, if we were fast enough, we could trial the new curriculum on a small group of students that started in February, rather…
In 2013, the superintendent charged our district technology committee—comprised of board members, teachers, administrators, parents and students—to come up with a plan that would provide an equal education opportunity for all students. Beekmantown’s poverty rate is the highest in Clinton County at 53%, and 30% of our students don’t have access to the internet at…
As solutions go, it is certainly radical: in order to thwart a mass epidemic of cheating by students taking their school leaving exams, Algeria shut down the internet for up to three hours a day this week – for everyone. “It’s beyond ridiculous,” said Lyès Rekkeb, 28, who works for a web design agency….
