I know that Jake will make fun of me for this one because I claimed I wasn’t enough of a Tumblr Hipster to use pummelvision, but I sneakily queued it up a day or so ago and the results are in. For some reason the photos only start around 2007 even though my Flickr stream starts long before then. Despite that, though, it’s pretty cool to see it the last few years fly by. Enjoy:
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I’m a huge, huge fan of Merlin Mann. The guy seems to be able to articulate everything that’s been brewing around in my mind at exactly the right time. If you haven’t read/seen/heard of his stuff, I strongly suggest you go check out merlinmann.com for a quick digest and links to follow him wherever you consume your internet-goodness.
His latest video, Makebelieve Help, Old Butchers, and Figuring Out Who You Are (For Now), seems to go on forever but it’s worth it. Go on, hit play:
Anyone who knows me in person knows that I’m a huggeee procrastinator and as such I really enjoyed Merlin’s explanation, or perhaps even his defense of procrastination: it helps me think! When I was in school my friends were constantly perplexed by the torture I put myself through by rearranging my room, watching TV, editing photos, playing with a rubik’s cube, etc. on nights where I should have been writing the paper that was due the next morning. Was it insane? Absolutely. I should have spent those hours actually writing the darned paper, but that would have been sensible. I’m much better at reading the paper topic, going off and doing whatever suits my fancy at that point, letting the thoughts stew, and then going to sit at my computer when I’m good and ready to just write. It’s just how I operate. I’ll probably go grey at a young age because of it, but hey, that’s why they invented hair dye, right?
So thanks, Merlin, for giving me a reason to continue working the way I’ve been working. Now to go dig that rubik’s cube out of that one box I haven’t unpacked…
There are two words that I really don’t enjoy when put together: social and media. I used to love it, but I think it’s been co-opted by all of these 40-year-old “Social Media Experts” who try to sell their Twitter Marketing Skills and their ability to increase your personal brand’s power by telling you to record a video talking about yourself. Yes, they may have a point about the importance of a good online brand, but to me, they’re all like the creepy “pull my finger” uncle that you always see in the movies. And they’re ruining it for the rest of us.
Now this isn’t to say I’m some sort of Social Media Expert or that I don’t think some of those people are actually good at what they do, but I do think that I get this stuff more than the average Joe and these Experts who learned about Twitter from a book are giving people like me a bad rap.
Me? I like to stick to phrases like “the social web,” if only not to come across as one of these half-baked get-rich-quick “marketers.”
The reality is, though, that the social web is hugely powerful and important. It’s obvious that it’s changing the way we do everything. You can’t really fault people for trying to capitalize on it, but they’re perpetuating this idea that social media is this thing that only experts or geeks can figure out. It’s not. The social web is one of these “by the people, for the people” things, and now, more than ever, non-experts can use the web to do anything their heart desires. It’s that awesome.
This video puts it into perspective:
(thanks john battelle)
Over the course of the last year, I’ve managed to convince a pretty significant portion of my non-geek, real-life friends to give this stuff a try and guess what? They love it. It’s not just a way to put the “social media” bullet point on your resume like those personal branding experts or the career center have been telling you to do. It’s actually fun.
So go on now – don’t be afraid. Go get yourself a Twitter account. Go try out Flickr or Tumblr or Vimeo or the countless other sites out there that will have you up and running with a few clicks. You’ll find out what this social web thing is all about first hand and I’m pretty sure you’re going to enjoy it.