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If you write, speak or perform for a living, you need an audience. Without one, you don’t get paid. (Hell, online, you still don’t get paid even with one. But I digress…) Your audience is one way to validate your success as a communicator. But your audience is also a trap. If they love you, [...]
Continue reading about 5 Reasons NOT to Listen to Your Audience
What if, one day, everybody decided to stop using screwdrivers? “They’re too awkward.” “They’re confusing.” “They’re ugly.” What if everybody used drills and wrenches instead? And what if the people who kept using screwdrivers were mocked and insulted by the suddenly hip drill-and-wrench crowd? What would it take for screwdrivers to crawl out of the [...]
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. [...]
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?
Do yourself a favor: stop reading Copyblogger. If you really want to learn how to blog, read Chuck Klosterman’s Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs; it’s the only writing guide you’ll ever need, because it has nothing to do with writing and everything to do with making ultra-personal, compulsively readable arguments about anything. Why This Book [...]
