I have my eye on the book "The Writing Revolution" by Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler. These days when I get interested in a book, I have several steps to follow. I looked the book up on Amazon to see the price of the Kindle format. Sometimes there is no Kindle version. Often, there is but the price is too high. My head is the victim of what Kahneman and Tversky call "anchoring". The first price for the first Kindle books was $9.99 so that price marks low prices off from high ones, for me.
It seems to me that speech, writing and distant communication like telegraphs, telephones and email have had an enormous effect on human life, at least in some places and under some circumstances. Besides, the books "Incognito" and "Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain" make clear to me that we are all very, very complex. Communication involves deciding to communicate, composing and creating and wording and re-wording, and delivering the communication. So, I try to stay somewhat alert to ideas and activities involving communication. Those two books emphasize some of the complexities of our bodies and brains involved in communicating. "From Gutenberg to Google" by Tom Wheeler, former chair of the Federal Communications Commission, shows the effects of human communication over time.
These days, with scams and hate speech and rumor mills (did you know that X sort of people want to eat your children?), it is clear that humans do all sorts of things with communication that are destructive and nasty. This is not new: the Old Testament has many passages about the damage of rumors and gossip.
It is natural to focus on the delivery of communication since when I write a note of admiration, its effect doesn't begin until it is delivered and understood. I have lately become interested in just the result of deciding what words express my admiration or gratitude, regardless of what happens to my composition after being made. Today, while checking out The Writing Revolution, I learned about the many articles on the internet about blogging. It is the writing that I think can be of value for one's mind and self, but I also advocate delivering or showing the writing to those who are interested.
