Knowledge that Transforms

There is a striking resemblance between the act of planning a menu and planning an edited volume. One can adopt either a prix fixe or a approach to the endeavor. A host or editor adopting the first approach delineates a theme or issue guiding the endeavor and identifies contributions whose content and quality will support that theme. The result offers less variety, but each course builds incrementally on its predecessors, leading to a more balanced and intense-albeit predictable-experience for the consumer. Those choosing the second approach solicit contributions more loosely, allowing contributors' interests and initiative to drive the endeavor. A pot luck offers more variety but can also produce a bizarre clash of tastes and quality; it maximizes the probability that consumers will find something they like, but often at the price of an acute case of indigestion.