I’ve been remiss
Worse than remiss. Negligent.
I haven’t told you about Vincent Flanders’ funny and useful and free article on web design.
Must reading. Do it before you go to bed tonight.
Mitch Joel discovers…
That life is a bit like an open source project. The more he gives, the more he gets. Montreal Gazette – canada.com network. New link: http://www.twistimage.com/articles/gazette2.html
Fix your computer
I had to use a PC today in order to run Exact Target to do a mailing. I was stunned and astonished at how much the experience has degraded since my last exposure. There were dozens of pop ups and flashing lights and buzzers and it was awfully frightening.
At the same time, I discovered that just a tiny portion of the population is using RSS to watch their favorite blogs.
SO, HERE’S WHAT YOU SHOULD DO to dramatically increase the quality of your online experience.
1. Download the free Firefox browser. Just click here and follow the instructions: Firefox – Rediscover the web. It really is free, it really only takes a few minutes, and it’s not hard.
2. Whenever you visit a blog or similarly updated site, look for that funky radar symbol at the bottom of the page (see above.)
3. Click on the symbol and Firefox will ask you if you want to store that link. Choose to store it on your toolbar.
4. From now on, you’ll have a menu that looks like this:
which will automatically list the headlines as they are updated.
That way, you don’t have to wonder if a blog has been updated or not.
Ten minutes, tops. Worth it.
Now, many people are worried that the IT guys will get mad if they do stuff like this. So they ask. Don’t ask. Just do it. You won’t break anything, and even if you do, they love to fix stuff.
Did I mention that if you go to the preferences menu item, you can choose to turn off pop-up windows? Well, you can.
Welcome to Seth’s Blog
There’s been a rush of new traffic, and for those new to the blog, I commend you to the archives (at your left, it goes back a few years). To get you started, please click here: Seth’s Blog: The Best Seth Godin Posts of the Year (2004). You’ll find 24 posts that are more remarkable than most.
Thanks.
When the echo chamber is everywhere
The profusion of media available makes it easy to assume that we’re hearing a diversity of opinion.
This brilliant post makes it clear that this is not so. What’s actually happening is that with less money per outlet (the money is about the same, the number of outlets is 1000 times more than it was a decade ago) there’s a race to find stuff to talk about. And more often than not, people just repeat what they heard.
The most depressing day of the year.
This matters a lot to everyone. Not because human interest stories are misconstrued again and again (though the current controversy over Clint Eastwood’s movie is a fine example) but because every brand, every incident, every individual runs the risk of being echoed until libeled, trivialized or, if you’re very lucky, canonized.
Redundant restatements
At the airport the other day, every announcement was preceded with (at full volume) "Attention All Personnel." Sometimes, they said it twice.
The thing is, as soon as you start blasting audio, you’ve got my attention. Stating that you want my attention not only doesn’t get you more of my attention, it gets you less.
Not only is "Attention" useless, the word "all" doesn’t do us much good either. And "personnel" is a fancy, bureaucratic word that doesn’t mean a thing. Are they saying that they only want paid workers to listen? Paid airport workers?
I bring this up not because you’re the twit who made the announcer talk in such an officious way, but because you one day may find yourself in a situation where you’re writing a blog or a letter or an email or whatever… and you’ll be tempted to fill the space.
Don’t.
Short sentences get read.
Not long ones.
While we’re at it: short words are better than long ones.
Thanks.
Seminar changed
I’m a doofus, it’s true.
Due to popular demand, my seminar will be Wednesday, the sixteenth, not the day after Valentine’s Day.
Forgive me, cupid.
Seminars: Announcing the Whiteboard Sessions
By popular demand (thanks!), I’m holding a seminar February 15th CHANGED to February 16th, Wednesday, first come first served, the first new seminar I’ve run since September.
This one is going to be different. You can find all the details here: Seminars.
It’s at my new office in Irvington, New York (click on the link to see the neat photos). Only 13 people can attend–the whiteboard sessions are designed to be significantly more interactive than my previous seminars. You bring issues or problems or challenges and the group will work through them.
I think this is a great setting for anyone familiar with my books who’s trying to get ideas to spread–at work, in an organization, online, offline.
Please read the details at my seminar blog (https://seths.blog/seminars/) and be sure to reserve if you want to come. If it works out, I’ll be running as many as eight this year, but let’s see how this one goes.
And then moments later
The very funny John Aboud writes:
Since I’m essentially a shut-in, I thought it would be fun to play with Amazon’s new Yellow Pages, which I’d read include thousands of photos of LA storefronts taken by roving Amazon vans equipped with digital cameras.
This listing for Meltdown Comics (no snickering) demonstrates a problem with their system:
Admittedly, it is accurate: everything in LA *is* always being blocked by a bus.
Link: Amazon.com: Yellow Pages: Meltdown Comics & Collectibles.
Not just local, but vivid
A9 claims that the whole process is automatic (except for the driving) but the driving part! Wow.
I did a search at random (of a favorite cafe). Look what I found. Link: A9.com Search: soy luck club. Yes, that’s a photo of the inside of the cafe. No, it’s not completely useful yet, but it’s pretty amazing.