Aug 06
Ideas for this blog post pop in and out of my mindscape like a carnival whack-a-mole stand – they’re not quite where my focus is, taunting me with beady eyes and pearly whites. It’s not writer’s block that’s guarding the on-ramp to my editorial freedom – like Little John, he’s demanding tribute and all I can offer is some off the cuff fluff.
And it’s not for lack of trying – unlike Spider Jerusalem conducting research through an information binge, my data stream is operating at 80% efficiency. There’s a jam somewhere and my organic transistors are giving off a foul stench as they sizzle with ferocity. There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief.
Overloaded, I’m parsing through possible explanations, and the only logical conclusion is that somehow I’ve crossed the streams of my Gen X and Gen Y personas. Technically I’m from the latter caste, but I think I sympathize on many levels with the former. Regardless, the Focus Alliance is clashing with the Multitask Horde and my poor brain is caught in the middle.
I know I already wrote about this earlier. Can’t help myself though; repetition just drives my point home.
Maybe this information dump of things I’ve been meaning to blog about will help the process. Call it my idea spring cleaning ritual (at the height of summer no less):
- The need for greater transparency in all systems
- Entrepreneurship: why it matters, and how to cultivate it
- A return to my realist manifesto
- The failure of the activism methodology
- Luck, chance and my existence
- Cheese
Time to take that left at Albuquerque…
Jul 29
My RSS reader has over 1,000 unread items. My inbox is never down to 0. I’ve got stacks of books I’ve been meaning to read. TV shows I need to watch, bands I need to listen to.
Doctor, doctor, I think I’m suffering from information overload – there’s too much data and not enough time to sort and analyze. The constant stream of status updates, tweets and ticker feeds are bombarding my senses. It’s like I’m standing at the bottom of a waterfall with a paper cup, vainly trying to fill it up.
Reminds me of Blur’s Out of Time chorus:
And you’ve been so busy lately
That you haven’t found the time
To open up your mind
And watch the world spinning gently out of time
Worry not though, there’s a breath of fresh air out there, and it actually comes from my twitter feed. It’s the people I follow who tweet once in a while, once every 2 weeks at most. And it’s usually an update letting me know where they’re going to be, what they intend to do. No sharing of links, no snarky commentary, no self-advertisements.
More of that would be nice. So would shutting off my data stream tap. But I’m too addicted to the ebb and flow of information – I’m a proud card-carrying member of the 21st century hyper-reality meta-nation called the Internet.
Mar 13
My previous post ended with the question “So what does the digital medium give us?” Based on the continuum Okrent proposes, I believe it gives you a pulse on reality.
I think this becomes clearer when we try to answer the other question cited, “What’s the definition of the news they want?”
Basically, news is recent historical information that contains two components: facts and analysis. The facts are descriptions of events: gang violence leaves 4 dead, Les Habs win the Cup, President speaks at global forum etc. Facts are the basic ingredients; analysis is what gives each recipe its unique flavour. Analysis addresses the age-old question: “Why?” Connections between the facts uncovers a deeper meaning. Motivations of the actors involved laid bare provides perspective.
The traditional model to deliver news relied on a broadcast system where the flow of information went from the select few to the mass public. The newspapers & magazines, TV & radio stations controlled the information we consumed. They provide just one perspective – their analysis of the facts.
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