Link Roundup: August 12, 2024
August 12, 2024
This week’s link roundup includes the unique combination of an article on the most-cited authors in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and advice on non-scalable activities for startups.
As always, I generate summaries using AI and edit those summaries for accuracy and usefulness. Then, I offer some thoughts of my own.
Eric Schwitzgebel, “The 376 Most-Cited Contemporary Authors in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy”
Generated Summary (ChatGPT)
The blog post updates the list of the most-cited contemporary authors in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, focusing on those born after 1900. The methodology accounts for co-authors and editors, though it has some limitations, such as biases in citation practices and errors in data coding. The list reflects influence within mainstream Anglophone philosophy, but certain philosophers, like Michel Foucault, are underrepresented due to differing citation practices.
My Thoughts
This is a fascinating project. The insights that a data-driven approach to citation mapping offers are not complete or representative, but they do suggest interesting things about a field. There has been similar work in other fields (see Derek Mueller’s analysis of citation in rhetoric and writing studies) but, as a reader of philosophy, I found this one particularly compelling both for its data and for the methodological considerations from Schwitzgebel. I highly recommend the comments section, too, for necessary questions about who is included in “top lists” of academic fields.
Graham, “Do Things that Don’t Scale”
Generated Summary (ChatGPT)
Graham advises startups to engage in non-scalable tasks, especially in their early stages, to build a strong foundation. He emphasizes the importance of hands-on approaches like personal customer interactions, manual user acquisition, and crafting tailored solutions. These efforts, though not scalable, are crucial for understanding customer needs, building a loyal user base, and gaining valuable insights that can guide scalable growth later on. The key message is that scaling prematurely can be detrimental to long-term success.
My Thoughts
I hadn’t read this article before, but I saw it cited elsewhere as a foundational piece of advice for startups and decided to check it out. As with several things lately, it fits right in with my developing critique of the optimization mindset. At a certain point, ideas about optimizing can overtake that actual work of effort. Graham makes that point in a number of ways related to startups, but the broad takeaway is that it’s often the things that don’t immediately yield or even center “results” that lay the foundation for growth, which is something that goes far beyond startups.