oh loathsome blogger - revisited

It’s a discipline. I keep telling myself that. The chaotic pace of things this time of year only goes so far to excuse drop-off-the-earth absences. What bothers me the most is that I haven’t taken the time to use this space to sort out my thinking, which is really the most practical thing this space is good for. Well that and navel gazing.

And sorting out my thinking I shall be doing over the coming weeks and months. Lots of really exciting (cool?) efforts underway that I’m going to need to vet and mull. Vet and mull? Hmmmm. There’s a lot of cheese layered on that pomposity, eh?

760: on kirkpatrick

"The age of privacy is over..."

As many of the comments to the article reflect, I think we have to start by identifying the "age" we're talking about and the definition of "privacy" we're working with.

I completely agree with Kirkpatrick's assessment that "Facebook itself is a major agent of social change..." FB's position that, "People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people" is anecdotal and sloppy at best.

On the other hand, Kirkpatrick's claim that, "Accessible social networking technology changes communication between people in a way similar to if not as intensely as the introduction of the telephone and the printing press" is a shoddy apples-to-oranges comparison. Privacy in cyberspace is not as simplistic as un-listing your phone number from Yellow Pages.

I think we would all agree that social norms have changed since the advent of the printing press and the telephone. Similarly, technology has changed in ways that draw vast communities of people "closer" together -- in intended and unintended ways. The basic concept of privacy -- of what people want other people to know about them -- has similarly been changed. I don't think, as FB claims, that systems are modified to "reflect what the current social norms are." Quite to the contrary, I think the systems shape and drive many of those norms -- they facilitate the openness and make possible the sharing of information in ways that people are not prepared to deal with.

On a wider scale, I'm a troubled that 8 sentences uttered by a 26 year-old can have such a dramatic impact on the daily activities of 350 million people. Maybe that sounds like crotchety-old-man-speak, but I have similar concerns with the likes of Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs.

if it smells like...

This is hilarious. I have to admit, I was wincing with pain as I read the post. The comments validated the feeling of a pin stuck in my neck and revealed the hidden humor.

I have to stop taking this stuff so seriously.

something to say

Some years ago I realized that I would never be any good at golf. In that moment of understanding, I came to view the game from an entirely different perspective.

The same can be said for my continuity with blogging, journaling, and the other forms non-work related writing I thoroughly enjoy but find little time to do. There are those lucid moments in the car, barreling down the road with such a super heightened sense of awareness that you're consciously unaware of everything except the brilliant idea you're telling yourself you need to remember. And "Oh yeah, this will be a great topic to write about." By the time you arrive at the cave and finish the first cup of tar, your brilliance is a fading ember and that fantastic blog post is lost to the next day dreamer.

Commitments are funny things. They do tend to keep you honest though.