Where I come from you don’t hear words like creative, independent, facilitator, or co-working. Where I come from, these words would mean you are out of a job, and are having trouble accepting that.
These words are changing how I think.
How I think about life. Jobs. Careers. Happiness.
Where I am going as a person.
How I am expanding from where I was raised and currently live.
What words are changing you?
I have noticed in the past week and a half of using Google Reader, a difference in the activeness of two groups of bloggers. One I label as my “Tech and Business group” and the other I call “Christian bloggers.” The trend that I have noticed is that the Christian bloggers tend to have a much higher rate of posting on their blogs than the tech/web group. Now let me disclaim that this by no means was a scientific study, just a trend that I have noticed. But it prompted me to question the relevancy of the topics blogged about, and the sources of inspiration leading to the completion of a blog post.
With the tech/business group, inspiration almost always comes from something in the business world, something in the way of their work–a new idea, a new product, a person of great influence. This then leads to a blog post that almost always is strictly work related, being only relevant to people in their field, or in the hours of nine to five (just go with me on those hours for traditions sake).
The Christian bloggers seem to pull not only from things that inspire them at work, but also the people, the products, the new ideas, but real life experiences, family, interactions with others, and the Bible. One may take the Bible for granted, but step back and look at it this way; the Bible is a source of inspiration that has been around for two millenniums–and it is still relevant! Not only do their blog posts take information from more sources, they can be applied more holistically to living ones life–not just during the work day.
So while both are relevant and deserving of time, which one should be more relevant to you?
Seek and read from the book of the Lord…they shall possess it forever, from generation to generation they shall live in it.
Isaiah 34:16-17.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4
I haven’t been living like this. Especially in the past few years of my life; everything seems to have been rushed and I feel I haven’t completed something meaningful. I guess that means it’s time to slow down and bring something to maturity.
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double‑minded man, unstable in all he does.
James 1:5-8
And that is how to realize this “revenue.” Otherwise, it’s just un-wisdom.
Sometimes I get obsessed with what is on the internet that I literally sit down at a computer and don’t move more than a few steps for several hours. It is just me trying to catch up on what everyone is doing, trying to stay informed, trying to expand my mind, and get ahead of the crowd. While this is good in a pure business, promotional sense, what is happening to my social capital with my family?
Tara Hunt says in her book ‘The Wuffie Factor’ that we have huge levels of social capital with people who our relationships are very casual and informal, relationships that we have been building for a long time. Is it possible that these relationships will wane if we ignore them? I think the answer is yes, and part of that is a natural aging process that kids a teenagers go through where they grow more independent. But is social media and ease of connectivity with other people killing them at a faster rate?
Just a quick thought after reading a tweet by @loswhit.
Last evening while reading The Wuffie Factor by Tara Hunt, I began to feel a need for an inspiration recommendation system. Something where I could post names of people who inspire me, and get recommendations towards other people to check out.
The system would behave somewhat like Delicious.com. If you aren’t familiar with it, you can bookmark web pages and then tag them appropriately so they are easily findable later. My inspiration recommendation system would be social based. A network of names would ensue and the would have a profile (either created by them or by fans) that linked to online content, listed titles of books, provided videos of their project, et cetera. Then they could be tagged with terms like: social media, web2.0, marketing, business, et cetera–encompassing a huge field of business terms and ideas. Real life relationships/friendships between the inspirational people would also be noted.
Once this was accomplished, the end user would only have to create an account and select a few names that they recognize and are inspired by. Then the system would go to work recommending people to them based on their apparent interests as shown by the people they selected. As with Delicious.com, it would also be search-able by tag, or through the relationship function.
The real idea is to provide a huge source in inspiration where not only the big people get recognized–for example Gary Vaynerchuk–but the small people would also be recommended to you based on having similar interests as Gary. As Tara Hunt explains in her book–these smaller people would benefit from Gary’s Wuffie (social capital) and the net gain would be beyond what either of them could do by themselves. (It’s like production possibility frontiers and Macro Economics 101 all over again.)
Basically it’s about sharing the inspirational wealth!
Experiencing a burst of creativity this morning, I wanted to contact some designers and coders to whip up a for fun website where recipes were representative of people in online social networking. The principle behind the site was to get laughs and would have probably served to only boost peoples egos while maybe making some Adsense revenue. But in the exploration of the thought, a metaphor was born.
Is it not true in every community, online or off, that people are the ingredients of social networking and business?
When you take a community and you take the affluent and influential people who are part of it, mix them together in a certain way (2 cups of Gary Vaynerchuck, 3 teaspoons of Guy Kawasaki) you have the potential to get something great in return! In any instance you need flour (a leader in a field acting, perhaps as a mentor, passively or actively) to make bread. However, one should not disregard the other ingredients that are less common (like you and me), spices that can add a unique flavor to the overall product.
The point is you need all sorts of people, at different participatory levels, to make something great and del.icio.us. Sorry for the pun!
If anyone would like to discuss making a social media/networking recipe representational site, please contact me! sethnenstiel at gmail dot com.
