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A Fork in the Road

I had dinner last week with a dear friend who was in town for business. As we brought each other up to date, I could tell he was disappointed that I had little interest in consulting (due mostly to being tired of traveling). And, he almost rolled his eyes when I told him I was still blogging.

Those reactions typify what I get when talking with former associates, so it caused me to ask myself Would I read this blog if I didn’t write it?

My answer was, and is, a resounding No. I would also not read any blogs, or at least would not use a feedreader (I might read one or two blogs occasionally). My primary reason for a feedreader has been to seek inspiration for topics to write about. Also, I would not use Twitter, which I also have primarily liked for its source of links to interesting articles that I could write about.

I have come to realize that my writing about life management, learning, and technology is pretty much in vain. There are literally thousands of blogs on these topics, so I have just been “adding to the noise.” I have tried to differentiate myself by giving an experience-based, mature view of life management, and by trying to help people use their technology, rather than have technology control them.

But, there is only so much one can say about these subjects, and I feel like it’s all been said, both by me and by countless others.

So, I am at a fork in the road. Which direction do I take? That of stopping blogging, or that of continuing? I don’t know which direction for sure, but I am sure leaning toward toward stopping. My current thinking is to keep this site open at least through this year, but to only write on those rare occasions in which I have something unique and worthwhile to say.

But, I do know this. I am at the very least going to take a month off from writing, a month off from reading my feeds, and a month off from reading Twitter. That should at least get some of the noise out of my head and enable me to make a good decision.

I have closed commenting on this post, but I will continue to monitor comments on the other 825 posts to see if a response is needed.

Thank you for your time and inspiration. Take care and best wishes.

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By Bruce Keener – January 25, 2010

Tackling Your Fears

Are you fearless?

Most of us are not. And that’s not all bad: sometimes fear can keep us from doing stupid things.

But fear can hold us back from accomplishing things we want to accomplish, too. It can do this without us even being that aware of it.

For example, say you’ve been wanting to lose weight for a couple of years, and that it’s really gotten out of control. You tell yourself you should see a doctor about it, but it never gets put on your task list. Or, if you put it there, it just keeps getting put off. When you start analyzing this, you realize you’ve been putting off seeing the doctor because you have a subconscious fear that she will tell you that you have diabetes, and you don’t really want to know that.

I doubt that most of us can make all of our fears go away. But, we can conquer many of them just by asking what do I have to do to stop being afraid of this? Once you see how simple some of the actions are, you can be motivated to accomplish them, putting the fears into your past.

To start getting a handle on your fears, I suggest you make a list of them. If you have trouble identifying them, you might ask yourself “what do I keep putting off, and what fear makes me put it off?”

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By Bruce Keener – January 20, 2010

Going Out on a High Note

As a retiree, I have become particularly interested in how well Brett Favre and Kurt Warner do this year. I was fortunate to retire on a relative high note, and I’d love to see these gentlemen be as fortunate, too. (Of course, regardless of how it works out for them, they beat me hands down in the money department. Good for them, though: they’ve earned it.)

My own decision to retire was based on many, many factors, but one of those was that I wanted to “go out” while I was still highly regarded. I didn’t want to wait until my skills declined to the point that nobody would really miss me. I know that sort of thinking must also go on in the minds of Favre and Warner.

Even though Warner is out of the playoffs now, I think he can still make a decision to retire knowing that he is going out on a high note. It could have been higher, sure. (It could have been for me, too.) But, I think he can look back on his career with a sense of satisfaction and pride.

Favre still has a chance to go all the way. Personally, I’d love to see him do it. But, again, I think he can retire now knowing that he did well. (I love watching his enthusiasm after throwing a touchdown … the guy loves his work.)

So what?

Well, for once I won’t really try to add an insight and suggest any aspect that you can apply to your life. I’ll leave that up to you. Maybe nothing applies to you. Maybe it does. Regardless, I hope you have been enjoying the games as much this year as I have. And, I hope that when you do go out, it is on a high note: much of the decision for that will belong to you.

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By Bruce Keener – January 17, 2010

30-Day Challenges

Matt Cutts of Google has participated in several challenges, in which he performs (or stops performing) an activity for 30 days. His most recent challenge is to not use Twitter for 30 days. Another example was his riding a bicycle to work for a month.

I think this is an excellent practice. Modifying your routines can help you to gain a different perspective, and, depending on the challenge, can have any number of side benefits.

So, I am going to try this out myself. And, since I’m several months behind Matt in doing this, I’m going to start off with a 60-day challenge: to not buy any books for 60 days. In fact, I just cancelled a book I had pre-ordered that was to ship in March.

You may think this is an easy challenge: not so. I am practically addicted to buying books, and have been for years. God only knows how much I’ve spent on them. I still believe it’s essential for us to keep learning throughout our lives, but I also believe I need to get better control of myself in this area. Hence the challenge.

What about you? What new are you willing to do for 30 days, or what are you willing to give up for 30 days?

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By Bruce Keener – January 17, 2010

Around the Web, 14 Jan 2010

  • BBC’s Natural History Unit is doing a series entitled Life. You owe it to yourself to watch the 6-minute preview of the series: fascinating video!
  • This Google Crisis Response page gives details on how to make contributions to help out in Haiti. Note that the White House (and Consumer Reports) particularly recommend making contributions to the Red Cross. You can do so via your phone by SMS texting “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts
  • Another charitable cause worthy of consideration is support of the author of Green Your Decor, whose daughter was recently diagnosed with leukemia. (My dad died from leukemia … it is a brutal disease that does not discriminate by age.)
  • Thanks to Torsten for forwarding this interesting link to me: Psychology of technology: less input, more innerput. Makes excellent points about the value in consciously reducing the input noise in your life so can pay more attention to your “innerput.”
  • I recently came across another price-comparison/product-comparison tool, and mention it here in case you want to experiment with it: Become.

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By Bruce Keener – January 14, 2010