In Praise of My Ex

I am so very proud of a writer named Michael Heller today. Check out this review by Tim Wu in Slate:

The last decade has produced enough books challenging received wisdom to fill a small—and stupendously popular—library called the Compendium of Counterintuition. Here we find Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, which teaches that snap judgments are sometimes more accurate than studied observation. James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds, almost a companion volume, argues that a bunch of random idiots can sometimes do better than experts. Chris Anderson's The Long Tail makes the point that selling unpopular stuff can be a way to make lots of money.

The newest addition to the collection is Michael Heller's The Gridlock Economy, which does for property rights what the Long Tail does for product marketing. The difference is that Heller, unlike most of the authors of counterintuitive books, is actually a leader in the academic field he is scrutinizing. As one of the nation's leading property theorists, he has accomplished a feat. In an area that has generated very few nonacademic books, Heller has managed to pull off one of the most perceptive popular books on property since Das Kapital.

The review is titled "Move Over, Marx." And the book's author is not just any ole ex. He's my ex-husband.

Michael worked enormously hard, I know, writing this book, and I am just kvelling over here to see him receive laurels so richly deserved. I'm looking forward to reading the book, and I urge folks to check it out.

Congratulations, Professor Heller. You are the best first husband, ever! I wish you all the joys in the world.