Tag Archives: Ideas

LinkedIn = Monster.com + Facebook?

That pretty much explains it all, right?  I mean, what else is there to say?  It’s not exactly breaking news, and if you did a Bing search, we’d probably find that someone has made a similar claim.   Who can say for sure?

All of that aside, what is the point of LinkedIn, and who out there is actually pay for its services.  I’ve been a quote-unquote user of the site myself for quite some time, but mostly in the passive sense.  It wasn’t until just yesterday, after receiving an email requesting I authorize a link request, that I allowed the site to read through my Google contacts to find folks I know.  What I found is that I, for some reason, have a bunch of email addresses for folks I don’t actually know.  Strange, to say the least.  But I went ahead and sent link requests to all of them.  We’ll see who responds.

Even as I’m thinking it over and writing it out, I still can’t understand the need for such a website.

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Book Meme

Only then she seemed to remember and with sudden abstraction she signalled for a taxi – Tender Is the Night , F. Scott Fitzgerald

– Grab the nearest book.
– Open it to page 56.
– Post the fifth sentence with these instructions.

Coincidentally, my bookmark has been on page 56 for two weeks.  Weird or Lazy?

Be Clear Be Obvious

The downside to not being on the ball and taking immediate action when it hits you is that someone else is probably going to beat you to the punch.  Maybe they’ll do a better or worse job, maybe they’ll do exactly the same job.  But they’re doing the job, and you’re left to kick yourself in a crowded parking lot at two in the morning on a Tuesday night inevitably asking yourself, "How the fuck did I let this happen?"  I don’t know.

Shortly after finishing a nine-month-long leadership course in 2007 I quit my then current job and started working with Thompology in a tiny attempt to find personal freedom.  This got me to start thinking about marketing which lead me to thinking about branding.  Sadly, I didn’t fully understand either until it was too late.  However, I did eventually coin the term "Be Clear.  Be Obvious." for my personal slogan, and I never shared it with anyone, at least not until early August 2008 when I shouted it out while jay walking across a street in Portland, Oregon at two in the afternoon.  (Why then?  I don’t know.)  So there it was.  My mantra.

Not even a full week after returning from Portland, Mr. Calacanis was at it again with his newsletter and emails a four thousand plus word writeup about PR and sums up his branding philosophy in six little words, "be amazing, be everywhere, be real."  Talk about very strange timing.  The only proof I have that I said mine first is the couple of witnesses jay walking with me, and I won’t incriminate them.

Essentially, it took Jason six words to say what I said in four.  Except I forgot the most important piece — "be amazing."  Very crucial and probably the part I take most for granted, which is likely why I completely glossed over it.

Calacanis has been at this quite a bit longer than I have, but that’s not a good excuse.  So take what you can from what either of us said, and learn your lesson.  Be Clear Be Obvious and to drive home what JCal said, be totally fucking amazing.  The rest will follow.

PSI Basic, Basically Bull *Sigh* Seminar

I recently had the opportunity to attend Basic in San Francisco from PSI Seminars.  (PSI stands for Personal Success Institute, and is pronounced “sigh”, as in the Greek letter.)  This is the first in a series of three seminars, roughly totaling a grand sum of $11K and requiring about 21 days of your life.  (You can take as much time between seminars as you like, but you get discounts if you sign up sooner.)  If you opt in, there’s a serious commitment.  To take the Basic will cost you about $600, which is where they weed out crazy people and anyone not interested in further self-exploration.

The creators of the program have cultivated a self-help pyramid scheme with a side of cult-like following.  It’s amazing, frightening, and all around intriguing.  It’s usually someone close to you that will lure you in, inviting you to one of their graduation ceremonies from one of the three seminars.  These graduations are more sales pitch than graduation ceremony.  You think you’re showing up to support someone close to you in his accomplishment and you come out having been pressured into signing up for Basic.  (Some graduates believe so strongly that the program is what others need, that they will shell out the initial payment for someone else.  That’s how I arrived.)

The solution they provide, regardless of what anyone finds wrong with himself, is that we have our parents to blame.  In some way, the obviously awful and difficult life we are living now is because of our parents, and where we fall short is also because of them.  Busted relationships?  You didn’t get along with mom or dad.  Fear of commitment?  Mom or dad didn’t accept you.  Problems with addiction?  Mom or dad was an alcoholic.  You get the idea.  And after they get you to accept and believe in blaming your parents, they ask you stop blaming your parents.  “You have the power now to choose.  Choose not to carry resentment, which leads to resistance and revenge.”  Holy crap, everyone is cured.

But wait, there’s more.  We can’t really cure ourselves in just four days.  If you want the healing to stick, you must sign on to the next show, where you can go deeper and really break up the programming we and our parents spent so many years putting into our heads.  A lot of the time during the first four days is used selling the next seminar, and telling everyone how great it is.  To reinforce this statement, graduates from the programs are available all weekend (volunteering) to answer questions and support you in your decision to sign on to PSI Seven, the next seminar.

Obviously their tactics aren’t as blatant as I’ve made them to be, but I use exaggeration to make a point.  It’s an emotionally exhausting weekend for many people.  You’ll laugh, dance, chat, sing, connect, and cry.  The facilitators are preying on people who, a) believe they have lost control of their lives, and b) people that  think they don’t belong anywhere.  Many leave the first class believing they’ve scratched the surface to recovery, and they want to break all the way through.  Handing over a few thousand dollars for this is a very small price to pay, and you’ll make some friends along the way.

I’ll tell you what, and here’s the deal — rather than shelling out a bunch of cash and throwing away valuable days of your life, invite me to coffee, buy me an Americano, and ask me to listen before I respond.  It’s the best gift I could ever give you.  OR you can watch the Last Lecutre by Randy Pausch .  (Randy passed away July 25, 2008, and this lecture made it on to the Google Search home page.  It’s that good.)

Let me wrap this up as plainly as possible:  I am not a fan of PSI Seminars.  Stay away.

It's Being Done Differently Now

It was time.  I had to do it.  I changed the site layout, or “theme” as it is referred to in the loop.  I’m announcing this obvious fact for the folks in the feed-readers; they can’t see a layout change.  For the most part, at least.

Anyhow, like I was saying.  It was time.  The previous layout was too dark and difficult to read (look at.)  I’m not a fan of sites that use light-colored text on dark backgrounds.  It doesn’t make any sense to me.  Don’t get me wrong, I like the _look_ of it, but it does not read well.  If you’re planning to have anyone read your stuff, it needs to be easy on the eyes.  I don’t want to get into a long UI discussion (although, maybe I should), but trust me when I say that this new layout is much better.

I’m not sure if the spark for change came from a talk I had with a fellow blogger, or a conversation I had with a colleague about her business’s web site.  Probably it was a combination of the two and, either way, it sent me out tinkering with all sorts of pre-developed WordPress themes.  (An added bonus to using WordPress is the many site layouts that are freely available for personal use.)  After several hours of working with Gimp and creating my own CSS from scratch, I decided it was a better idea, and also much quicker, to mash together a bunch of already existing lines of code.  (Why re-invent the wheel, just make it more round.  What?  I mean make it roll farther.)

This was only half my problem.  I spent a bit of time this evening, searching for a reason as to why my PHP was not working with WordPress 2.6, which I had hesitantly upgraded the site to late Monday evening after trying it on another site I host.  2.6 was working great everywhere I used it, with all my plugins in tact and new features working flawlessly.  But then I loaded up my new layout, which, silly me, I was testing locally on a linux box running WordPress 2.5.  (Imagine that!  It was working in one set of conditions, but not another.)  “Warning!”  “Error!”  “the function() requires a string at line 18.”  Oh my.

What I’m getting at, is that there are going to be some kinks for a few minutes, and I’m doing my best to work those out of the mix.  So, if you would be kind enough, bear with me a minute or two, and, if you notice any errors, please draw them to my attention so I can remedy the situation.  I’m just getting back into the old smell of PHP and, honestly, I was never a CSS fan.  However, it’s proving to make a whole lot of sense now that I’ve plopped myself in the world of web site development. (Is it still a client if you do the work for free?)

I’ll leave you with it so I can get back to it.  My next goal is to clean up the tags and categories.  Both of these are useful tools when used correctly, but we’ll have to let that sit a moment.

It’s Being Done Differently Now

It was time.  I had to do it.  I changed the site layout, or “theme” as it is referred to in the loop.  I’m announcing this obvious fact for the folks in the feed-readers; they can’t see a layout change.  For the most part, at least.

Anyhow, like I was saying.  It was time.  The previous layout was too dark and difficult to read (look at.)  I’m not a fan of sites that use light-colored text on dark backgrounds.  It doesn’t make any sense to me.  Don’t get me wrong, I like the _look_ of it, but it does not read well.  If you’re planning to have anyone read your stuff, it needs to be easy on the eyes.  I don’t want to get into a long UI discussion (although, maybe I should), but trust me when I say that this new layout is much better.

I’m not sure if the spark for change came from a talk I had with a fellow blogger, or a conversation I had with a colleague about her business’s web site.  Probably it was a combination of the two and, either way, it sent me out tinkering with all sorts of pre-developed WordPress themes.  (An added bonus to using WordPress is the many site layouts that are freely available for personal use.)  After several hours of working with Gimp and creating my own CSS from scratch, I decided it was a better idea, and also much quicker, to mash together a bunch of already existing lines of code.  (Why re-invent the wheel, just make it more round.  What?  I mean make it roll farther.)

This was only half my problem.  I spent a bit of time this evening, searching for a reason as to why my PHP was not working with WordPress 2.6, which I had hesitantly upgraded the site to late Monday evening after trying it on another site I host.  2.6 was working great everywhere I used it, with all my plugins in tact and new features working flawlessly.  But then I loaded up my new layout, which, silly me, I was testing locally on a linux box running WordPress 2.5.  (Imagine that!  It was working in one set of conditions, but not another.)  “Warning!”  “Error!”  “the function() requires a string at line 18.”  Oh my.

What I’m getting at, is that there are going to be some kinks for a few minutes, and I’m doing my best to work those out of the mix.  So, if you would be kind enough, bear with me a minute or two, and, if you notice any errors, please draw them to my attention so I can remedy the situation.  I’m just getting back into the old smell of PHP and, honestly, I was never a CSS fan.  However, it’s proving to make a whole lot of sense now that I’ve plopped myself in the world of web site development. (Is it still a client if you do the work for free?)

I’ll leave you with it so I can get back to it.  My next goal is to clean up the tags and categories.  Both of these are useful tools when used correctly, but we’ll have to let that sit a moment.

Focus Your Site Content

I have a tendency to wander around town from time to time, which often ends me up in some sort of new and strange conversation with another voice that results in a lot of time being used to talk about nothing.  While these experiences can be entertaining, they are not always the greatest use of my time.  (Not that I know what that is either.)  Sometimes, though, I have semi-useful conversations with folks I know better than others, and that is a good use of my time while still entertaining.  I recently ran into an editor friend from the Sacramento Business Journal and she gave me some feedback after viewing the site, essentially saying two things to me: 1) Write more, and; 2) Focus the content.  Sound advice, no doubt.

The first of the two is an easily reachable goal.  I have a habit of writing down whatever I can remember in whatever order it is remembered.  As time goes on, I’ll use more and more of that writing for the site and we’ll have plenty of entries.  This is the problem that makes difficult achieving number two.  (What?) As it stands now, the site has no real focus other than to humor me, possibly entertain you, and be not always nonsensical.  Not the clearest set of instructions, right?  It makes sense, but what does it mean.

I understand the need for focus.  People don’t like ambiguity.  They don’t want to be taken to wandering all over the place, essentially wasting a bunch of time to ultimately, probably, accomplish very little if nothing at all.  You’re going to want content with clarity that is concise.  That takes most of the fun out of it for me as the writer.  So the questions now are — Do I get focused?  How is it done? Possibly (I don’t want to rule it out completely,) and here’s how it’s done:

  • Clearly Defined Goal(s) Know what it is you want to accomplish with your content.  For example, “maximize revenue per unique visitor to the site through conversion”  Be specific.  Be clear.  Knowing exactly what you want to do will help you determine how you do it.
  • Know Your Topic It’s much easier to focus and be clear when you yourself are knowledgeable and interested in the topic you’re covering.
  • Get to the Point Quickly It’s a bad idea to fumble around in the first paragraph.  Say as much as possible as soon as possible about your topic.  Make sure the reader knows straight away what the rest of the post is going to be about and why he should continue reading.
  • Relevant Photos We tend to enjoy the visual, so include photos and be sure they have something to do with your topic, potentially aiding in the further explanation of what you’re trying to communicate.
  • Omit Needless Words Remember what William Strunk, Jr. taught in The Elements of Style, Rule 13 — Omit Needless Words.  It can’t be said enough.  Proofread your writing and remove fluff.  Don’t write about the writing.  Write about your topic.

That’s it.  There you have it.  A quick start guide to getting some focus.  It sounds easy enough.  Doesn’t mean it’s easy to do.

My editor friend suggested I write about Sacramento since I’m out and about so much.  It makes sense, and I have some Sacramento entries.  But I also want to write about “nerdy computer stuff” as she worded it.  I’ve been tinkering and hobbying around the computer world since the late 80s, and I studied Computer Science at Cal Poly.  I get a kick out of the latest developments to hardware and software, so I’m going to write about that stuff.  And let’s not forget that sometimes I just want to write and write and say nothing at all.  I’m sure you won’t mind.

Commercials as Social Objects

It almost never fails that someone, at some point in a conversation with me, if we talk long enough, will ask, “Have you seen that one commercial?” No.  I haven’t. I don’t watch commercials. I don’t understand why anyone wants to talk about advertising if they don’t work in the world of marketing.  Boggles my mind, and I have to make a real effort not to chastise someone when a commercial is brought up in conversation.

Okay, wait, I get that commercials can be short and entertaining, sometimes showing with a bit of humor, but none of that creates a want in me to purposefully watch one, and I truly do not want to talk about them while out in public because, ultimately, all commercials are really just trying to get me to buy something I already know I don’t want and I don’t want to push that sale on someone else.  But that’s not what bothers me most about the situation when I find myself in it.  What bothers me most is that these people find commercials interesting enough to talk about with strangers.

Hugh MacLeod has this thing he calls the Social Object. “The Social Object, in a nutshell, is the reason two people are talking to each other, as opposed to talking to somebody else.” It drives me crazy that I appear to others as someone who views the commercial as a Social Object, the thing I would want to talk about with you rather than someone else.  It’s a pretty safe bet that, if you’re talking about television commercials, I don’t want to talk with you at all.  A Social Object can be anything we know about that would be easy to understand and interesting to talk about that is not seen on TV, like a park down the street where I play Frisbee from time to time. Maybe it’s been seen it in a commercial somewhere.

I’m usually not too picky when it comes to strangers talking about whatever, and I’m almost always willing to listen except when the topic turns to commercials on TV.  Let’s, the next time we bump into each other, talk about the weather.