Update on Draft 2.5

The fact that this update is three days behind the usual Sunday schedule is indicative of the state of things. But the main goal for last week was to survive my talk on Sunday, and I did -- audience casualty figures are not yet available. In the preparation for the talk, I found that progressing with respect to policy strictness in three stages -- when describing drug regulatory regimes -- seems to work pretty well. Start with the alcohol regulatory model, then add exclusion options (mandatory and voluntary), and then add buyer licensing. My old order of first introducing licensing and then exclusion always made exclusion seem like an afterthought.

The unrelated tasks of tax filing and sending in a book review (the book concerns the Russian economy, not vice policy) also were completed, minutes before the respective deadlines. Gave an unrelated (to the Five Drafts project) talk on law and economics, which went OK. As for progress in reading the three vice-related books, well, not much to say. The books remain...

(1) The Saloon Problem and Social Reform, by John Marshall Barker, 1905;

(2) Last Call, by Daniel Okrent, 2010; and,

(3) All or Nothing, by Jessica Warner, 2008.

Here's where things now stand, in terms of pages read: Barker, 64 out of 212, unchanged from last week; Okrent, 30 out of 469 (up from 26) but I finished the skip-ahead portion and a bit more, so pages 310 to 380 are completed; Warner, 122 out of 230, up from 106 last week. I intend to finish Warner this week!

Next Wednesday is the due date for Draft Three, which right now looks a lot like Draft Two. I am also scheduled to give a related out-of-town talk next Wednesday, so that worries me, as it will cut into my time for revising the draft. Nevertheless, this week's main goal is to push along the revising/writing of Draft Three.

Incidentally, I recognize that these rambling lack-of-progress reports are deadly dull to others, and even to me. This blog is a commitment device for me of sorts, however, and it is serving (imperfectly) that modest function.

Update on Draft 2.4

For this past week I was intending to update the SSRN version of Self-Exclusion, and to submit it to a journal; both tasks were accomplished, amazingly. I also was supposed to prepare and survive this week's talk (number two of four), and I did; the most taxing one is next week, though. (The audience for this past week's talk might disagree with my relative taxation claim.) The other, ongoing tasks were to make progress on reading three books:

(1) The Saloon Problem and Social Reform, by John Marshall Barker, 1905;

(2) Last Call, by Daniel Okrent, 2010; and,

(3) All or Nothing, by Jessica Warner, 2008.

Here's where things stand, in terms of pages read: Barker, 64 out of 212, up (barely) from 58 last week; Okrent, 26 out of 469 again, though in the skip-ahead section, I'm at page 340, intending to go to page 371; this is up (barely) from page 328 last week. I did better with Warner, where I have read the first 106 of 230 pages (up from 12 pages completed as of last week). So these three books will be mentioned on a few more Five Drafts posts.

For the coming week, my chief goal is to put together and rehearse a decent talk -- the real one (number three of four) is slated for April 17. If I make progress on reading the books, so much the better. I have two nagging tasks, unrelated to this blog: one involves writing a book review and the other is to prepare my taxes. So maybe I am a good judge of relative taxation?

Update on Draft 2.3

My minimal plan for progress towards Draft Three is moving ahead at the more-or-less expected glacial pace. The good news is that I did indeed enter the edits to Self-Exclusion and to Draft Two. I did not submit Self-Exclusion to a journal, however, nor update the ssrn version. These are tasks for the forthcoming week, then.

The assiduous Five Drafts reader will recall that I hope to finish reading three books relevant to the Five Drafts project by April 20, and have committed to providing page numbers of the material already completed as a way of assessing progress. The books are:

(1) The Saloon Problem and Social Reform, by John Marshall Barker, 1905;

(2) Last Call, by Daniel Okrent, 2010; and,

(3) All or Nothing, by Jessica Warner, 2008.

Here's where things stand: Barker, 58 out of 212, up from 47 last week; Okrent, 26 out of 469, up from 14 last week; and Warner, 12 out of 230 (up from 6). In short, a pathetic performance. In recognition of the lack of progress, I have skipped ahead in Okrent, because the end of alcohol Prohibition is my chief concern. So I have also read pages 313 to 328 of Last Call, with the intention of soon getting to page 371.

The first of my scheduled four talks this month that relate to the Five Drafts project took place yesterday. That went OK, and I hope that the experience will ease this week's talk, scheduled for Friday. So this week's plan is simple. Prepare and survive the talk, re-post and submit Self-Exclusion (as described above), and make progress on the three books sub-project. Serious thinking for evolving Draft Two towards Draft Three remains postponed until April 18 or so.