The end of the year is a traditional time for some reviews and conclusions. Although it is actually always a good moment to revise and draw conclusions… Just that on other occasions there seem to be more excuses not to – LOL. Anyways, let me follow the trend and give you my top 5 articles of the year – the ones read close to 2K times and which triggered some truly interesting conversations with my readers (whom I am sincerely grateful for, as I always love exchanging opinions!).

Et voila! Here are the “winners”:

1. The most read article of the year on the blog is “How to boil a frog?” — a story of how I managed to persuade my mother to allow me to buy a car despite her categorical “no” (and how to get those “mission impossible” type of outcomes in general)
2. The “silver” medal goes to the article, which talks about the dangers of goals, or more precisely “Why achieving goals could screw up your life?“
3. Two completely opposite reasons of our procrastination with introducing change in our lives is discussed in the third most read of 2017 — “Why are we so afraid to try?“
4. To read about some of my sweet African memories and how elephants made me understand how much more enriching a life can be if you never lose excitement and never cease to be grateful — have a look at “The elephant effect“.
5. And finally — the article published in 2016 which remains to be one of the most read also this year is “Getting to know yourself” — a collection of links to free online resources for psychological tests, which I believe are truly good to know, especially if you are interested in self-development and in self-awareness in general.

Also this year I have published a set of articles on the fascinating topic of art law (a lawyer in me could not keep quiet anymore – LOL):

• Mediation and Art: is it a match made in Heaven? – which examines whether mediation is the best way to solve art related disputes and whether mediation can help where litigation is consistently failing.
• Yours might have been yours, but now it’s mine: Appropriation artists and the shady area of copyright – a thought-provoking piece on the issue of authorship. Do you think that it would be possible to take a photo of a famous photo and claim it as yours without even mentioning the original author? Or can you just take someone else’s work, incorporate it in yours and once again – omit the original author? If you think “hell, no!” on both counts, think again, or better – read my article.
• So who’s the author? – where I pose a whole range of questions about defining an author for the purpose of copyright. It is not that straightforward, as frequently an artist for example comes up with an idea, yet it is not him, but a craftsman who realizes that idea… In such circumstances, who is then the author?
• Your Lautrec or Lautrec’s Lautrec? – which will be especially interesting if you plan on investing in a painting and want to know the difference between “by studio of Rembrandt” and “by circle of Rembrandt”. I talk about attribution and authentication: what is the difference and what is the process.
• “Copyright is for losers”. Graffiti as an IP outcast – where I give an overview of IP issues surrounding these disputable yet frequently highly appreciated (as well as priced!) artworks.

Stay tuned as many more interesting “writing pieces” are yet to come. 🙂