Move Fast and Fix Things: BISG 2025
I took a ton of old-fashioned notes, most of which were reasonably legible a few days later, and here’s some of my favorite takeaways.
Always Take the Meeting
No matter how much you love your job and/or the company you work for, there's nothing wrong with being aware of what other opportunities are available at any given time, and there's nothing wrong with exploring a different opportunity that might be a similarly good fit for you.
The Lessons of Media Bankruptcy (or, Sad Anniversary, F+W Media!)
Here’s four things I learned which might be strong signs your company is heading in the wrong direction.
Does it [still] spark joy? On Mallory, #ComicsDNA and book publishing.
Thinking about my early days with comics, I realized they were the gateway to my interest in publishing, my first real awareness of people and a process behind the scenes that connected me to the stories and characters I enjoyed so much.
Burning Down the House: True Story
Besides my own attempts at zines and chapbooks, it was my first real introduction to the world of publishing, and it left a permanent mark that partly explains my cynical passion and/or pragmatic idealism for the publishing industry.
Publishing is a Community Service
"Only those who know nothing of the history of technology believe that a technology is entirely neutral... Each technology has an agenda of its own. It is, as I have suggested, a metaphor waiting to unfold." Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death There's a lot of handwringing and finger-pointing happening in publishing these days, both by those struggling to find solutions to the challenges the industry faces, and by various Joker-pundits who apparently "just want to see the world burn." Demagogues and idealogues love the spotlight, and attention-seeking media outlets happily provide them a stage to stoke faux controversies over…