Associate's Mind

  I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency. Let the words be gazetted and ridiculous henceforward. Instead of the gong for dinner, let us hear a whistle from the Spartan fife. Let us bow and apologize never more. A great man is coming to eat at my house. [...]

I had enrolled in The School of Life, an academy of “self-help” on Bloomsbury’s Marchmont Street, co-founded by philosopher Alain de Botton. For about £30 per session, students can take classes with resident “fellows” of the school on subjects such as “How to fill the God-shaped hole” or “How to make love last”. Tuesday’s topic [...]

  Sometimes you just need to take a break. Unplug, desync, disconnect as I’ve said in the past. Blogging well takes effort. Sure you can crank out insipid, trite observations about marketing, technology, and other vaguely related legal topics like clockwork. But producing something that is self-satisfying and genuine takes time. Sometimes you have the [...]

Associate’s Mind was included in the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100 today, a listing of the top 100 legal blogs of the year. Thanks to everyone who nominated the blog for inclusion.  It’s good company to be keep, with many great legal bloggers in there. Thanks to everyone else who continues to come back everyday and [...]

  “Inside baseball” refers to using jargon, specialized knowledge, acronyms, first names instead of full names, or other such things when speaking and writing. Using shorthand of this sort is simply more efficient when among friends, colleagues, or other “insiders.” But there’s a larger reason for inside references: They subtly increase the bond between the [...]

It’s Not China; It’s Efficiency That Is Killing Our Jobs | Dyske “Today the best ideas can efficiently and quickly propagate worldwide, and everyone can efficiently find them and buy them…When someone owns a means of production that is more efficient, it can eliminate a large number of jobs, and he stands to profit handsomely [...]

  My first computer was something of the the 386 variety. Actually, it was my father’s for work, but I remember spending countless hours  sitting in front of it learning DOS commands. A few years later I remember dialing into local BBSs when we got a 9600 baud modem. the thrill of seeing someone type [...]

Bad SEO Advice May Support Negligence Claim–D’Agostino v. Appliances Buy Phone | Technology & Marketing Law Blog Probably not good news for all those social media gurus out there. Gang Used 3D Printers for ATM Skimmers | KrebsonSecurity Interesting in light of yesterday’s post on 3D printing. Fear of Repression Spurs Scholars and Activists to Build [...]

Law Geek: The Circular 230 Ward Against Evil | Defending People A deconstruction of the “IRS Circular 230 Notice” language you often see at the bottom of lawyers’ emails.   Anatomy of A Scam Investigation, Chapter Three | Popehat Attorney gets a fraudulent pseudo-invoice from a scammer and is personally offended. Begins full probe of [...]

  10 Monday Afternoon Reads | The Big Picture Just for this picture: Serial Killer | The Appellate Record On the importance of the serial or “Oxford” Comma. The Data Breach you may not have heard about, but should definitely care about | Massachusetts Data Privacy Law Blog  A brief discussion and example of spoofing [...]