Great debate.

Steven Pinker is brilliant. 

Matt Ridley is witty.

Alain de Botton and Malcolm Gladwell are both lack of substance when deal with fact, data and science. 

So glad I didn't waste any time reading books from Alain De Botton and Malcolm Gladwell.

The debate is highly entertaining. So, search for it in the link. If it is not link to the right one, search for it. It is worth the time. 

Of course, Steven Pinker side won. 

I feel like I'm living in some kind of strange fever dream. I'm not even saying this is a bad idea, just that I'm having a hard time accepting this might actually be a thing. 

So, this defense of hating by Tom Scocca has been burning its way through the bookonets, and the responses have been really interesting. As someone who's spent some time on the frontline in the Be Nice wars, I want to strangle fucking Dave Eggers for the bullshit he's quoted as saying here. I feel like there's a feminist angle on the value of snark versus smarm, something about the way women are told to watch their tone when expressing dislike. I'm still working out what I think. 

It's worth checking out Malcolm Gladwell's response, which I hated, but I haven't gotten around to checking if he's wrong or not. I haven't read the original Eggers piece, so I don't know if Gladwell's full of shit when he claims the Scocca peice misreads it. Somehow, I think not. Be nice is a pretty easy message. 

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/12/dave-eggers-tom-scocca-and-being-nice.html