On June 13, Seth Godin told a story about a woman who told airport security she was a frequent flyer, knew all the rules, and therefore, she should be able to skip the line. When she finally made it through, security found two full bottles of shampoo.
Seth says, “In study after study, respondents rate themselves as less racist than average, smarter than average, more generous than average.”
What if they’re not? What if they’re wrong?
“Any time you ask customers to self-segregate, they will put themselves in the best line.
“And just about any time you ask a customer to acknowledge that they were wrong, you will fail.”
So then what do you do, Seth, when the persons success depends on them acknowledging they are wrong? The first step of AA is overcoming denial and acknowledging you’re wrong.
Please Leave If [vol. 15]
This week I’ve been writing about some of my favorite blogs, but today is Friday, and on Friday’s here at joebunting.com, we helpfully exclude. That means today we will be sharing some of the blogs we think are less than worthy of our attention.
This is my 10 Things I Hate About You(r Blog) list:
10. Not enough content. Every once in a while I come across a blog like this one with like five posts. They started writing three weeks ago and haven’t built up much content. They’re newbs, freshman, and the only cure is to write more. Most blogs aren’t viable unless they have 10 posts per month for 3 months. Seth and Seth have been blogging since 2007 and 2005, respectively. When you see archives like that you sit up and listen, no matter how bad their writing might be. Consistency over a long period is one of the best proofs you’re here to stay and that I should be reading regularly.
9. Bad grammar / spelling. We all make mistakes, but when there’s one in every sentence my intelligence is insulted.
8. Too many ads. A little adsense on the sidebar or at the top is cool, but when it’s stuffed between every nook and cranny where you can’t even tell where a post ends and the next one begins, I get angry.
7. No Technorati. My friend Jessica Fairchild’s awesome photography blog isn’t set up with Technorati. I love Technorati and use it to keep all my favorite blogs in one spot. Since she doesn’t have her blog set up, I hardly ever read her blog. Bummer because she has some really great pics on it.
6 & 5. Posts are too long or too dense. My friend Rochelle started a blog to document her experience teaching in the toughest school in Chicago. It’s a great subject, but the problem is her posts don’t have any paragraph separation. Oh yeah, and they’re about 5,000 words long. It makes for a slow, grueling read.
4. Unfocused subject matter. Might be a good criticism for my blog. It’s supposed to be about my music, but it’s become anything I want it to be about, from driving to the art of blogging. Would I read my own blog? Would you read yours? Good question to consider.
3. Narcisism. I was reading this personal development blog (I’d link it but I couldn’t find it again) when out of nowhere the guy started talking about his new diet. I guess that’s kind of an okay thing to write about as a personal development coach, but the worst part came when he started talking about why he was writing about it. He said, “And since everything I write on this blog turns into revenue… blah blah blah.” I tuned him out after that.
What a creep! If you really think everything you write turns magically into gold you’re kidding yourself. What a narcisistic thing to say! As if the only thing that mattered was his making money, not content, not quality, just him. From a personal development coach! Not a very good once I guess.
2. Where’s the actual writing?! Before Joe Jr. changed his layout, the music coaching site, Spinme.com was one of the most frustrating blogs I’ve ever read. Instead of writing consistently, he put up links to things he was reading. This looked way too much like his adsense (placed before and after each post… yikes!), and so you never really knew what was his writing and what was him trying to make money. Now it’s less a blog and more of a website, which actually works for him.
1. When they die. Three weeks after My Little Ghost Friend promised in vain she’d be resurrecting her blog after a month long hiatus, I deleted her blog from my Technorati favorites. It was sad because I liked it a lot, but it had to be done.
Take my list with a grain of salt, like everything in this series. This is my opinion, and thus, is not true for everyone all the time.
For those of you writing your own blog, though, give it some thought.
Have a great weekend!
Well, that’s only half true. He isn’t a scenius, but his blog certainly is.
Kevin Kelly is awesome. He helped found Wired magazine and was it’s Executive Editor for years. He’s written for New York Times, The Economist, Time, Harpers, Science, GQ, and Esquire. He’s written books, started several other magazines, and has published his own photography too. On top of that, he never went to college (nope, never). Instead, he went and took pictures in Asia.
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I read Kelly’s The Technium, a quasi-blog in search of “the meaning of technology.” His search is similar to the search of the Amish. The Amish’s view of technology is often misunderstood. Wikipedia says, “The Amish do not view technology as evil, and individuals may petition for acceptance of a particular technology in the local community.”
For example, they often have telephone booths in their communities, and some groups generate their own electricity with windmills to run their workshops. They do not accept technology blindly though. Cellphones, for example, are being debated about within some groups right now. The question they ask is, is the cellphone beneficial or detrimental to our community. If the benefits to the greater community outweigh the detriments, they might choose to accept the new technology. The test, though, is community.
Kevin Kelly’s search is similar. For example, on June 11 he tested Google. Does Google make us smarter? In other words, is Google good for you or bad?
The day before, June 10, he wrote about community genius, the genius of a scene. Scenius. He talked about Camp 4, a mountain climbing scene that started in Yousemite and attracted and produced some of the best climbers around.
As a musician, I know all about scenius. Ragae was started from a scene. So was rap. Pioneers like Run DMC and Jay-Z and others evangelized the world to music from poor, uneducated kids in Brooklyn. Emo, ska, grunge, blues, atonal jazz. Long before these were genres, communities were getting together, hanging out, and trying something new. To put it frankly, community is King.
Like I said, Kevin Kelly is awesome. Go read his quasi-blog. Do it. Now!
I only read a select few personal blogs regularly. One of these first class blogs is written by a beautiful young woman with who just returned from a trip to Cambodia. In Cambodia she explored the illegal sex trade and learned about the international groups fighting to stop it.
“How do people become so sick?” she asks, reflecting on the book Not For Sale which she read before traveling. “How can parents knowingly sell their son to a sex trafficker because they want to a car or buy real estate? We’re not even talking survival here. Real estate, for crying out loud! How can grown men, married with children, visit brothels and pay to rape 10 year-old girls, then go home to their families? ”
This anger is a good contrast to her usual upbeat cheariness. Like her little poem “S is also for Singapore”:
I like the letter S.
Sun
Sand Sea
Scenery Shopping Sugar
Sharing Smiling Snorkeling Sightseeing
Lately, in reflecting on her trip, she has been telling stories of the lives of some of the women and young girls she met in Cambodia.
Here she captures the optimism of children in the midst of sexual abuse, violence, and rape.
I like Liane’s blog because her tone is nurturing without being cheesy. She doesn’t quote statistics or numbers to stir us up in defense of those in need, rather with her stories, she invites us to help alongside her. She lets us in to her life, and in so doing, some of her compassion rubs off.
I’ll admit, I’m a biased critic toward her writing because she is my girlfriend, but maybe one reason she’s my girlfriend is because I like her writing.
Click
here for her main page.
Copyblogger.com is one of the best down and dirty, meat and potatoes writing resources I’ve ever used. If you want some simple, practical tips to improve the emotional impact of your writing, it’s a great place to start. For anyone who writes for other people it’s great. For bloggers, it’s essential.
Copyblogger has a new article every day, sometimes written by Brian Clark, the founder, but mostly written by a select group of talented copywriters. Topics range from word choice to subject matter to design.
Plus it’s just fun. One time, I was struck with writers block, struggling to find something to fill the page when I read this post about ”unleashing your inner dork,” and instantly my problem was gone. What could I be a dork about? In 10 minutes I had a post done. Simple. Of course, it’s not always that easy, but I love Copywriter because it made writing that easy 3 or 4 times.
Take a tour through Copyblogger here, and remember to enjoy yourself.
I love the huge variety of artwork the roadside scholar finds and shares with her readers, from paintings to greeting cards, food art to photography. She finds some really neat stuff.
The self-proclaimed scholar originally fulfilled her passion for collecting beautiful handmade objects as the owner of two shops in Chicago. After these went out of business she sought another outlet for her collecting ways. Thus, her blog was formed, and I’m glad it did.
I’m grateful for the discoverers of the world, explorers who go through the world with a fine tooth comb, picking out things they think others will enjoy.
The world needs people who are champions of the under-appreciated. The Scholar fits that bill well.
I’m going to be Joe Bunting the Curator.
There are certain things you do every day to keep yourself healthy and sane: brush your teeth, eat dinner, watch a little television (but never too much), eat your bagel. One of the things I do is read blogs. It’s not unusual for me to look at 15 blogs a day. The process stimulates my mind, makes me laugh, and sometimes gives me ideas to write about in my own blog.
This week I’m going to bring you into the world of my blogroll and give you a tour of some of my favorite blogs. I hope you enjoy them and that maybe, if they touch you, you’ll begin to read them too.
