Hunkering down: A personal update

The couple months since my last update have been uneventful personally (although, of course, not for the world in general). In fact, the last two months have been fairly routine for me, definitely in the negative sense of the word (but unfortunately without the benefits of routine in the positive sense, which I've not been able to capture). Because I plan to hunker down and put my nose to the grindstone until the end of April, as I explain below, I thought this was a good time to provide an update on what I've been doing.

These two last months...

• I revised the table of contents of my handbook of ethics and economics for Oxford.
• I revised a trade book proposal and sent it off to an interested publisher.
• I revised a paper on behavioral economics for a special issue of Oeconomia.
• I wrote a number of referee reports, reviews of book proposals and manuscripts, and letters of recommendation for students and colleagues (again, more of each than I usually do).
• I wrote three new posts for Psychology Today: "Falling in Love Online: Romantic or Risky?", "What Can Scarlett Johansson Teach Us About Monogamy?", and "Do You Ever Feel That You're Not Interesting Enough?"
• I attended one day (actually, one evening and the following morning) of the 2017 Central Division meetings of the American Philosophical Association in early March, at which I gave a paper in a session about the philosophy of economics with Patricia Marino, and commented on William Irwin's book The Free Market Existentialist in an author-meets-critics panel. (The links lead to write-ups of each sessions at the APA Blog.) It was terrific to reconnect with friends like Bill, Patricia, Skye Cleary, and Shawn Klein, as well as to make a few new ones.

Most significantly, I finished a rough draft for my book on the individual for Palgrave. I put in the same one or two hours in the morning nearly every day as I did in January, and then spent the rest of the days on other things (including those listed above). Over the last couple weeks I tried to get all my other outstanding commitments off my plate so that, starting today, I can devote most all of my time (aside from college and kids) to finishing the book by the end of April. The ideas are all in the draft, but they need to be smoothed out, reorganized, and supported with examples, quotes, and citations. (I've never written a book this way, but it's been an interesting experiment.) Also, I have not been keeping a book journal, probably because progress has been so slow, gradual, and generally satisfactory; now that the pressure is on, however, I plan to start one.

Next time you hear from me here, the book should be finished. Have a great April, and I'll see you on the other side!