A man walks into the Alternative Bookshop (a libertarian bookshop of the 1970s and 80s). He shows the staff a book he has written and says they should stock it. The staff take a quick look at the cover and reply that it's not sort of book they want to stock. "But you haven't read it. You can't judge a book by its cover!" he says. Yet the staff are insistent that they don't want the book: "Considering that we're not going to read it," they answer, "how else do you propose we should judge it?"

Judging a book by its cover is a very rational way of deciding whether it is good or not. Whose imprint is on the cover? If a major publisher has invested in getting a book to print, you know that a serious player takes the book seriously. The back cover normally gives some idea about content. If the design looks professional, it indicates that a lot of care has been put into making the book. In fact, there's a great deal of information conveyed by book covers.

This brings me to Brian Micklethwait's Education Blog, which has just been redesigned. Some people really like new design, others don't. This is of secondary concern. The important thing is that its new design says to visitors: "This blog has been professionally designed. Therefore whoever is behind this blog takes it seriously. It is worth reading." And, of course, Brian understands these things: it was a young Brian Micklethwait working at the Alternative Bookshop who judged books by their covers.