I’ve mentioned the Becker-Posner blog in previous posts but I wanted to highlight it in its own post. Gary Becker, a Nobel-prize winning economist, and Richard Posner, a judge, post at least once a week on their blog. Both are distinguished, but Posner (pushing 70 years old) in particular is one of the most renowned intellectuals of our day.
Posner has written on everyone under the sun – literally, his mind churns out thousands of articles, books, op/eds, on topics as varied as Bush v. Gore, sex, the 9/11 commission, AIDS, literature, and pornography. It makes sense then that their blog has covered a wide range of topics which each of them publishing a page and a half commentary on a topic and then another post a few days later responding to reader comments on the blog. Each post usually generates upwards of 50 comments. Recently, their blog has become more blog-like (a more personal voice, more sporadic posts responding to current events).
That such prestigious intellectuals are making themselves accessible to the lay blog-reader is amazing. It also prompts an interesting analysis of their motives – to sell more books? Build their personal brands? Or simply to contribute to society’s IQ?
You may not be able to keep up intellectually with some of their analyses (I certainly can’t), and you may not always agree, but if you don’t already subscribe to their blog, then you are missing an opportunity for a front row seat at some of the most gifted minds today.