It’s all Eric Goldman‘s fault. In this comment to a 2010 post in which I lamented the demise of traditional reviews of law books, Eric suggested that if I want to see reviews of books on contract drafting, I have to be willing to do some reviewing myself.
That was the thin end of the wedge. Now, I’m sometimes too much of a critic. I think that’s an occupational hazard when you go against the grain in a field that’s resistant to change. Because everything is happening more slowly than I’d like, because some doors remain closed to new ways of thinking about contracts, because symptoms of the problem are routinely touted as solutions, I get frustrated. And sometimes my frustration has led me to be unduly dismissive.
That’s not helpful. So I’ve toned down two recent posts, this one about wireLawyer and this one about Thomson Reuters’s planned acquisition of Practical Law Company.
When I indulge in criticism in the future, I’ll do my best to eliminate invective. But for the time being, I plan to take a holiday from being the critic. MSCD3 will be coming out in a few weeks. And I’ll soon be heading off to a bunch of great cities where I’ll be sharing with like-minded people my passion for all things contract drafting. Accentuate the positive!
But hey, this is a modest course correction, not some personality overhaul. You’ll still find me plenty assertive.
