Mark D. White

Well that was quite a month.

The less said about Sandy, the better. You've seen the pictures, you've heard the stories–the impact on me and those close to me was trivial compared to most.

The less said about my day job the better–maybe I'll talk about this more once the dust settles. (Ooh, cryptic!)

So what is there to relay to you good people?

• I've seen the final cover to Superman and Philosophy, and it's fantastic–once it's online I'll link to it. I just approved the copyedits also–it's great to watch this project approach completion.
• I expect the page proofs for The Manipulation of Choice on Monday, so I'll be checking those and preparing the index for several weeks after that. I recently approved the back cover copy, including terrific blurbs from Walter Olson (Cato Institute, Overlawyered) and Jonathan Wight (University of Richmond, Economics and Ethics).
• I started working up the proposal for my follow-up to Kantian Ethics and Economics with my editor at Stanford University Press, focusing on judgment in ethics and economics. I hope to start working on this after I finish up my two books next spring.

What about my Stanford Brief, you aks? Hmm… how much time ya got?

I've gone back and forth, around and around… I've been all over the place with this. I know what I want to say, the core idea, and I think it's important. Very important. But I can't settle on a way to say it–the forum, the approach, the voice, anything. It could be a blog post and it could be a full-length book; it just depends on how elaborate I get and the amount of background information I give. Over the last month I've discovered some people who have said similar things–which makes me feel foolish and ready to pack it in–until I realize that in other ways they miss the point. Then I wonder if I'm just repackaging existing concepts a different way–a worthy enterprise, to be sure, but perhaps not worthy of a dedicated book (or even a journal article). But the next day I'll wake up and see an entirely different way to present it–maybe an academic trade like The Manipulation of Choice, taking my argument to "the people."

And strangely enough, I've enjoyed this process–and that's not a word I use lightly. I'm charged up about this, reading a tremendous amount of material, and bouncing ideas off my Stanford editor (who is incredibly supportive and helpful but increasingly amused at the same time). I'm experiencing flow, which is truly wonderful. At the same time it's driving me just a little bit crazy, and preventing me from working on much else (including the two books I have under contract). But it's rare that I'm driven this strongly, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let this go. There's something here; I just need to find it.

Oh well. I'm off to New Orleans this afternoon for the Southern Economic Association meetings where I'll talk about libertarian paternalism. Lots of time to ponder plans on the way there and back.