Short is the new long

"The general point is this," writes economist Tyler Cowen, the infovore's infovore, in his 2009 book Create Your Own Economy: When access [to information] is easy, we tend to favor the short, the sweet, and the bitty. When access is difficult, we tend to look for large-scale productions, extravaganzas, and masterpieces. Through this mechanism, costs of access influence our interior lives. There are usually both "small bits" and "large bits" of culture within our grasp. High costs of access shut out the small bits - they're not worthwhile - and therefore shunt us toward the large bits. Low costs of...