In response to my blog post about popularity vs. relevance, Gradon Tripp mentioned his own quandary: he’s not sure if “being himself” is costing him money. This is a doubt we all suffer on a regular basis. Social media is supposed to be freeing and profitable, so we do our best to split the difference. [...]
Do you know Bryon Sheffield? Probably not. He has a blog, but it doesn’t exist yet. But you can help. See, Bryon’s a smart guy. He knows the web is full of white noise, and he doesn’t want to add to it. But he does want to blog. He has interests, and he has expertise, [...]
Continue reading about What If You Could Program Someone Else’s Blog from Scratch?
When you’re surrounded by strangers, it can be hard to strike up a conversation. Presumably, things would be easier if you already knew something about some of those people. But what if that knowledge actually made you more reluctant to start a conversation? That’s what I’m wondering about Meet Gatsby, a Foursquare-related program that connects [...]
Continue reading about What Kinds of People Do You REALLY Want to Meet?
A few years back, I read a story that’s stuck with with me ever since. It was in one of the many “how to write better” resources (possibly The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner, although that one’s still worth recommending regardless). In it, the author reminisced about something one of her university professors [...]
Continue reading about Are You Waiting Until You’re Popular Before You Start Being Relevant?
Several weeks ago, Baltimore-based users of LinkedIn had a problem: LinkedIn insisted that Baltimore didn’t exist. More specifically, LinkedIn classified anybody living in Baltimore as living in the “Washington D.C. Metro Area.” Considering Baltimore is constantly trying to remind the world that it’s a separate city from D.C., some local Baltimoreans understandably perceived this LinkedIn [...]
Continue reading about LinkedIn Actually Listens to Their Users
