I finally thought up how  twitter and say facebook or texting are so different.  Twitter is about finding people based on shared interests or ideas rather than finding existing relationships and discovering their ideas. So if I search twitter for “fly fishing” I’ll find other people who are interested in said topic.  I can then “follow” them and see what else they have to say about that and other topics. I may not know them (and they may not know me) but I may learn a lot about fly fishing and scratch my “i wish it was spring” itch all at the same time.

Likewise other people may query a word that I have “tweeted” about and then decide to follow me.

Facebook approaches the scenario from a different angle.  Facebook is based on pre-existing relationships.  I know john so I become his “friend” and then whatever he writes about comes up in my news feed.  Likewise whatever I write about comes up in his.  The downside here is that John (or the rest of my friends) may not be interested in fly fishing.

To me it would seem odd to search facebook for people interested in fly fishing and then ask them to add me as a friend.  I mean, we don’t know each other.  Twitter on the other hand doesn’t have the presumption of relationship. I can follow people and they can follow me whether we know each other  or not.  No pressure.  And if you don’t like what someone’s tweeting, no problem.  Just stop following them.

Twitter also has some unique features that I find really interesting:

1.  Functionally you can set up your blog, FB, and twitter to interact via twitter.  That is to say, update one and update them all.  This can be a serious time saver for the hard core social media type.

2. Because my audience is no longer limited to just people I know, my potential audience base grows.  In my case, not much – as I know most of the people who follow my tweets, but still it’s, at least theoretically, a bigger audience.

3. I can get to “know” people who aren’t my friends: celebrities for example.  There are many people I follow who I think are really cool, but that I may never meet.  By reading their twitter I get a better idea for who they are.  (I’m assuming their publicists don’t write their twitters.)  Sometimes you discover they’re nerdier than you might have thought or, of course, they may turn out to be pretty neat.

4. This a point from erick (@ecardoza) He says twitter levels the playing field.  You only get 140 words to say something so there’s no room for anyone to really shine with elaborate illustrations.  They have to say what they’re saying in a nice concise way.  This can make it a shallow relationship tool, but as I have already said.  Twitter is more about content than relationship so it works.

So there you have it.

Twitter is pretty cool.  You may want to get an account and see what it’s all about.  www.twitter.com

If you want to follow my “tweets” search twitter for “stevebleile” and you’ll find me.

Cheerio

sb

It’s your typical romance story. Guy likes girl. Girl shoots guy down. Guy does everything in his power to forget girl and ‘move on.’ Guy cannot seem to escape girl. Girl is oblivious (according to the girl.) Girl and guy have above average number of friendly disagreements only they didn’t seem all that friendly. Guy figures out that the only reason there are so many skirmishes is because he’s really working hard not to like girl. Guy wonders why he would work so hard when liking the girl may be easier. Guy remembers previous shoot down and decides to revamp strategy. Guy finds 101 reasons to be around girl as often as possible including fixing downspout, mowing lawn, chopping wood, hedging bushes, driving family to the airport, and however many more reasons would be needed to top the list to 101. Girl claims to be oblivious of guys advances. Guy keeps going through 101 reasons. Girl concedes having guy around isn’t so bad. Guy takes girl out for a trip on his super cool motorbike. Girl concedes that she is not freaked out at his advances (though that thought freaked girl out.) Guy leaves country for 10 days and girl is sure to talk to him every day. Guy comes back then Girl leaves the country for three weeks and they manage to communicate on a regular basis. Guy sends present in walnut. Girl doesn’t open because she doesn’t like walnuts. Guy asks her to open the walnut anyways. Girl find pearl in walnut. Guy takes girl to dinner and surprisingly all of their friends are there. Walnuts mysteriously appear on table. Girl is getting suspicious. Guy asks girl to crack the nuts. Girl finds a ring. Guy proposes. Girl says yes.

At least that’s how it seems to me in hindsight. (Me being the guy and Tash being the girl.)((If you hadn’t already figured that out.))

We all already know what NOT to look at.  (See no evil, hear no evil, etc. )But what do we put our focus on?  Is it enough to know what NOT to do? 

I think not. 

Thinking about what NOT to do still means you are focusing on that very thing you are trying to avoid.  Instead we need a mechanism by which we can focus on anything else – and by extension – what is good to focus on.

Good focus produces ideas, and ultimatley adventure.

Bad focus can produce a myriad problems such as fear, stress, inactivity and at its logical end: boredom!

I am processing a unique problem.  I’ve just spent three days at a conference where every guest speaker was -concept by concept- telling me the thoughts that have been in my mind and heart for the last three years.

So, how did they know what I was thinking?

Doesn’t this mean I’m not quite as clever as I supposed and, in fact, my creative ideas are just run of the mill notions?

Are we all tapping into the same spirit of things?  Riding the same wave, as it were; which doesn’t make it any less impressive?

What do I do now? I’m not alone! How do I connect with them again? Do I need to?

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Malcolm Gladwell writes that true greatness is only available to those who have 10,000 hours invested in their craft.

I suppose he means 10,000 hours invested in difficulties.

But like Bizet who wrote Carmen – one of the most loved Operas of all time- who died a few days after getting a bad review, we should, I should, soldier on.

Here’s to 10,000 hours!