“My other superpower is that I don’t mind embarrassing myself in public. If I had to pick one quality that best predicts success (other than wanting to be successful) it would be the willingness to risk embarrassment.”
— Scott Adams
Category Archives: Quotable & Notes
Everyman Journalism
In a recent interview by Rocketboom, Dave Winer talked about making an introductory course in journalism a requirement for college students.
“Journalism is the new practice for Everyman, it’s what we all will be doing all the time in this new century. As the professional media pulls back, the citizens, you and me, need to fill in and replace every pro with 100 of us, to cover every school board meeting, every planning commission, defense contractor, civic organization. It’s like the Second Amendment for information and ideas. We need a well-informed electorate to make the tough decisions n our future.”
I’m not sure why professional meda would “pull back,” but I like this idea and see no reason why those of us that didn’t go to J-School can’t help cover some events that would otherwise go unreported. During my dozen years at KBOA, I covered every kind of event. Took my little cassette recorder, interviewed folks. Edited the audio. Wrote a little story. Put it on the radio. Could my reports have been more “professional.” Sure. But the listeners to our little station were just happy someone covered the event and reported it.
For my money, we could drop the Algebra requirement and replace it with Journalism 101.
Dave Winer: Why should your company be blogging?
“Asking why you should use blogs is like asking why you should answer the phone. It might be a customer, a developer who wants to use your services, or a reporter who wants to write about the company. Your competitors answer the phone, so you should too.” — Dave Winer’s
On being normal
“…learned that the people in front of me are going at their own speed, probably for a reason. They’re not trying to get in my way as I rush past. I need to stay out of theirs. And I need to be grateful that I can rush past again. I need to appreciate normal.”
“…so freaking happy I can’t even describe it. And when I speak to a packed ballroom, like today, I feel reborn. It is pure joy, and I feel like the luckiest guy in the world. Every day feels like a gift now. And that, my friends, is the rarest neurological disorder of them all.”
— Scott Adams
The Village
“Sometimes we don’t do things we want to do so others won’t know we want to do them.”
— The Village by M. Night Shyamalan
Does public broadcasting need a new name?
“…broadcasters (should) start viewing themselves as multimedia companies, and even changing their names to help spread the message both internally and externally. The internet is NOT broadcasting, and the more we understand that, the quicker we’ll get on with business models that’ll meet our needs in a Media 2.0 world.” – Terry Heaton
A couple of years ago we dropped the “network” from one of our networks because it was felt to be somewhat…limiting. No long reflective of what we are or are becoming.
Dave Winer on blogging
Dave Winer’s simple explanation of blogging and OPML:
First, create a new weblog on one of the free services, like Blogger or MSN Spaces. It takes about five minutes, and is about as hard as creating an email address on Yahoo or Hotmail, and represents less of a commitment. Then make your first post, something like Hello There, or Testing 1-2-3. Once you’ve verified that it works, you can stop there.
Then someday, when you’re in the shower or lying in bed in the morning and get an idea that you wish you could tell everyone, remember that you have a blog, and go to the computer, and write it up and publish it. That actually feels pretty good, even if you think no one will read it, because you got it off your chest.
Then in a few days Google will probably visit your site and index the post, and then when someone searches for that subject, your page will come up, and maybe you’ll pass that idea on to someone who can use it, or meet someone who agrees, or someone who disagrees. And that’s blogging, and that’s all it is.
As for OPML:
Did you ever have an idea you wanted to post on your blog that didn’t seem big enough to be an essay? An idea that could be expressed in a sentence, or less, but still deserved to get out there? In writing school they teach that less is better. If you can say something in three words instead of twenty, say it in three. It communicates better. Well, none of the existing blogging tools can do little sentence or phrase-size blog posts.
Dave Winer on blogging
Henry forwarded a link to a Slate piece that suggests blogs –as businesses– have peaked. If you’re a regular, you aleady know my thoughts on blogging. Companies with a clue, confidence and a good blogger… can/will make valuable use of blogs. As to the Slate article, I refer you to Dave Winer who sees blogging as “part of life”:
Blogs are where new businesses will spring from. Think of blogs as being like dorm rooms, and remember that’s where Dell Computer came from. Blogging communities are incubators. Some communities incubate negative stuff, plenty of those, but occasionally a blogging community serves as the launching pad for something good. There will be a steady stream of those, and they will be on the cover of magazines, and will belong there.
Scott Adams: Advice for new graduates
- Teamwork is what you call it when you trick other people into ignoring their priorities in favor of yours.
- Leadership is a form of evil. No one needs to lead you to do something that is obviously good for you.
- Business success is mostly about waiting for something lucky to happen and then taking credit.
- Preparing a Powerpoint presentation will give you the sweet, sweet illusion of productivity.
I also kind of liked one of the commnets: “Unprofessional” and “passionate” is the same thing.
U. S. Founding Fathers
Scott Adams insists we must look at the the actions of our Founding Fathers in order to understand their ideals:
1. Slavery – excellent source of poontang
2. Women voting? That’s crazy talk!
3. People who don’t own land suck
4. A good way to change tax policy is through violence
5. It’s not really crossdressing if you also wear manly boots.
6. Treason is okay if you have a good reason.
7. No one wants to sit next to Ben Franklin
Like Adams, I’m glad they did the whole create-a-new-country thing… just don’t go nuts with the “this country was founded on sacred ideals put forth by our Founding Fathers” riff. They were a practical lot.