We are taking the week off for the US Thanksgiving holiday and will return with new posts on Monday, November 28. In these tumultuous times as we’re seeing the ways we operate (hello OSTP) and the ways we communicate (adios Twitter) undergo seismic changes, it’s understandable to want to cling to the past. Change can be scary, but change means opportunity, and I urge you to heed the words of John Hodgman when it comes to nostalgia:
I consider nostalgia to be a toxic impulse. It is the twinned, yearning delusion that (a) the past was better (it wasn´t) and (b) it can be recaptured (it can´t) that leads at best to bad art, movie versions of old TV shows, and sad dads watching Fox news.
In that spirit, here’s The Handsome Family performing “Back in My Day”, a not entirely accurate vision of how things used to be. Happy holidays for those who celebrate, see you in a week.
David Crotty is a Senior Consultant at Clarke & Esposito, a boutique management consulting firm focused on strategic issues related to professional and academic publishing and information services. Previously, David was the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. He oversaw journal policy across OUP’s journals program, drove technological innovation, and served as an information officer. David acquired and managed a suite of research society-owned journals with OUP, and before that was the Executive Editor for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, where he created and edited new science books and journals, along with serving as a journal Editor-in-Chief. He has served on the Board of Directors for the STM Association, the Society for Scholarly Publishing and CHOR, Inc., as well as The AAP-PSP Executive Council. David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did developmental neuroscience research at Caltech before moving from the bench to publishing.
