Maven or monkey?
Posted on January 11, 2007
Filed Under Technology, Podcasting, Apple, Business, Music, CBC, media, VW, Diesel, FLOSS, Something to Think about, News, Computing, Politics, Software Eng, Books and Movies |
So I’ve been doing a lot of reading of late, trying to improve on my preparation to really contribute to society. (Luck/Success = Preparation + Opportunity) I have an enormous (but self-under-valued) skill set in my field of study (Software Engineering –that is, use of software to solve engineering problems–), little of which I comment on here. I am also curious by nature and have my mind in many different niches, much of what I find interesting I comment on here. I spread my self too thin with the many interests — recently trimmed the RSS aggregator down to 150 from 300 — but I still have the desire to learn more because I feel I don’t know enough to contribute.
That is one of the problems of an education in engineering, “I know a little of every thing, a lot of nothing” — John McNeely, classmate at McMaster. That in turn teaches me to learn that way, broad not deep. I am also eager to share my knew found knowledge, interest, or thought via this blog. According to Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point, I am by definition a Maven. I am certainly not a Connector (but Julien Smith is). I am a Salesman in some given contexts and domains (but the best salesman I know is John Kopanas, he’s also a big connector - for example CUSEC and SOEN.info”).
How can I use these qualities to impact on others, or in an idealistic and altruistic way, serve society (as it was ingrained in me early in my engineering education)?
I’ve been trying to contribute to the social conversation by way of this blog, and some other small contributions and connections with others. But my efforts, at best, have been minute. As regular readers may have noticed, I touch on a little of everything (that interests me), but a lot of nothing. I’ve been wanting to start podcasting, but my time and content ended when I completed posting my recordings from the Toronto podcaster meetup in December 2005. I’ve thought that I needed to have a common theme to base it on, to attract listeners and keep them.
I recently completed reading Freakonomics, a book that states upfront there is not unifying common them (aside from the broad theme of economics, and classic economists would hardly agree with that). It is an interesting look at a number of societal situations and analyses how incentives influence behaviour. But as stated, they care completely disjoint gazes in the world we live. So I thought to myself, “Self, why not apply the same thinking to your podcast?”
So now I’m looking to gauge the interest in you hearing my conversations, comments, and musical likes? Think of it as an audio version of this blog. Some of my social commentary started as writing down what I wanted to say in audio form, but only made it bits in textual form.
I’m not looking for huge numbers of people (shhh, I run this from home on my broadband connection), just like minded people that will appreciate what I contribute and will make you think about it. I think of it as a way down at the end of The Long Tail (yup, just read that too in 2 days, it was that good). And in a way a Long Tail itself, with the Internet, technology, and music being the most frequent items (the head). The tail will contain my social commentary, economics/investing, software Engineering, the odd, the funny, the things that make you go hmmm…
Now that I have made this public, I better get to it if I’m truly a maven. Otherwise I’m just a monkey at a keyboard… Thoughts?
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