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Ask Nicola: trembling with rage
Oct. 19th, 2009 01:49 pmAsk Nicola: trembling with rage
U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan dismissed a lawsuit yesterday, essentially finding that the Jackson Memorial Hospital was within its rights to leave a dying woman alone while denying her present and immediate family to visit her, be updated on her condition, or even to provide the hospital with medically necessary information.
Amazon: carrot and stick
Apr. 13th, 2009 11:24 amI've written to them and I won't buy anything until it's fixed, but I don't really agree with the idea of swearing off forever, even if they fix it.
I want to reward good behavior as well as warn/boycott for the bad. Otherwise I think their incentive to fix it is less.
I don't know if behaviorism works at the corporate level, but usually a combination of positive and negative reinforcement works better than either alone. So if the idea is to get Amazon to change, I think both would be better than a forever boycott.
And I do think it's worthwhile to try to shape Amazon's behavior, even though I do buy some books elsewhere: in the past six months I've bought from Alibris, Powell's, and my local Barnes & Noble. Point is, they will still hold a large share of the market, and I think it's worthwhile to keep the LGBTQ titles there in the search results, looking normal and ubiquitous.
I want to reward good behavior as well as warn/boycott for the bad. Otherwise I think their incentive to fix it is less.
I don't know if behaviorism works at the corporate level, but usually a combination of positive and negative reinforcement works better than either alone. So if the idea is to get Amazon to change, I think both would be better than a forever boycott.
And I do think it's worthwhile to try to shape Amazon's behavior, even though I do buy some books elsewhere: in the past six months I've bought from Alibris, Powell's, and my local Barnes & Noble. Point is, they will still hold a large share of the market, and I think it's worthwhile to keep the LGBTQ titles there in the search results, looking normal and ubiquitous.
