Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 375
December 27, 2010
Unplugging The Matrix
It's a big, big world out there. My way of doings things will not be your way of doing things.
You should be comfortable with that. I am. I don't really see it as "my way" versus someone else's. I see it more like The Matrix. I loved that movie (mostly the first one, but all three are much more bearable when watching them in one sitting). Beyond the special effects and subtext, there is something that much deeper happening in the movie. While I don't believe that we spend our days living in a state of illusion while our real bodies are being farmed for energy like batteries by self-aware computers, I do believe that many of us are living in The Matrix. The Matrix being this place with set rules, controls, pressures and constructs (in the movie, this is how Morpheus defines it: "The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.") There are many people who want no part of living in The Matrix (you can read more about these types of people here: Incompatible)... I'm one of them (I think).
What does our Matrix look like?
The Matrix has rules like:
You have to work between 9 am - 5 pm.
The weekends are your free time.
You can take two (maybe three) weeks of vacation per year.
If you don't get - at least - 7 hours of sleep, you won't be able to function.
You need work/life balance (more on that here: The Myth Of Work Life Balance).
Great ideas come from creative people.
You should not work during your vacation.
If you're serious, you'll have an office with a lot of overhead.
There are countless other rules. Just look at your day-to-day routine... those are all rules of The Matrix.
All choices are fine choices. Your mileage may vary. What works for some, won't work for others... but don't fool yourself: the majority of people do fall into a very clean and rule-based existence and anything that falls outside of that "norm" (i.e.: "Mitch, you Blog during the holidays? Why don't you take a break?!?") is seen as "unhealthy" or worse... like the person is some kind of freak or weirdo who is doing some kind of harm to either themselves or their loved ones.
Tell you what, I'll be me and you be you.
I spend a lot of my days thinking about The Matrix that most of the people I know live within. I see them struggling through their days just trying to make it to the weekend and I'm able to fast-forward my life to my dying day. At that moment, I often think about being old, sick and waiting to die. What days will you think about when looking back on your life? You see, while I'm Blogging during the holidays, spending time to think and soaking in the good will of my family and friends, you're dreading going back to work next week.
Beyond that...
While you're spending your days wondering why others act the way they do, I am spending my days wondering what the future will look like and how I can help shape it. Thinking like that keeps me out of The Matrix. Thinking about getting old and having way too much time on my hands while waiting for fate to do with me what it will (and it will for each and every one of us) drives me to enjoy life (work, personal and community). So, while you wait for that moment to take a break from work, or for that week where you can unplug, just consider (for a moment) that for some of us, a true vacation is the complete opposite. For some, a vacation is every day. It's the chance to be working on the art/work we were meant to do. For some (people like me), we feel blessed that everyday is what most might consider a vacation. The challenge is that this world is hard to imagine when you're living in The Matrix ("what's this. Mitch? Your work day is like a vacation? Are you on drugs?"). Always remember: "you take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." The difference is that I can't show you anything. You have to show it to yourself.
So, red pill or blue pill?
Tags:
blog
blogging
creativity
incompatible
morpheus
neo
systems
the matrix
vacation
work life balance
Unplugging The Matrix
It's a big, big world out there. My way of doings things will not be your way of doing things.
You should be comfortable with that. I am. I don't really see it as "my way" versus someone else's. I see it more like The Matrix. I loved that movie (mostly the first one, but all three are much more bearable when watching them in one sitting). Beyond the special effects and subtext, there is something that much deeper happening in the movie. While I don't believe that we spend our days living in a state of illusion while our real bodies are being farmed for energy like batteries by self-aware computers, I do believe that many of us are living in The Matrix. The Matrix being this place with set rules, controls, pressures and constructs (in the movie, this is how Morpheus defines it: "The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.") There are many people who want no part of living in The Matrix (you can read more about these types of people here: Incompatible)... I'm one of them (I think).
What does our Matrix look like?
The Matrix has rules like:
You have to work between 9 am - 5 pm.
The weekends are your free time.
You can take two (maybe three) weeks of vacation per year.
If you don't get - at least - 7 hours of sleep, you won't be able to function.
You need work/life balance (more on that here: The Myth Of Work Life Balance).
Great ideas come from creative people.
You should not work during your vacation.
If you're serious, you'll have an office with a lot of overhead.
There are countless other rules. Just look at your day-to-day routine... those are all rules of The Matrix.
All choices are fine choices. Your mileage may vary. What works for some, won't work for others... but don't fool yourself: the majority of people do fall into a very clean and rule-based existence and anything that falls outside of that "norm" (i.e.: "Mitch, you Blog during the holidays? Why don't you take a break?!?") is seen as "unhealthy" or worse... like the person is some kind of freak or weirdo who is doing some kind of harm to either themselves or their loved ones.
Tell you what, I'll be me and you be you.
I spend a lot of my days thinking about The Matrix that most of the people I know live within. I see them struggling through their days just trying to make it to the weekend and I'm able to fast-forward my life to my dying day. At that moment, I often think about being old, sick and waiting to die. What days will you think about when looking back on your life? You see, while I'm Blogging during the holidays, spending time to think and soaking in the good will of my family and friends, you're dreading going back to work next week.
Beyond that...
While you're spending your days wondering why others act the way they do, I am spending my days wondering what the future will look like and how I can help shape it. Thinking like that keeps me out of The Matrix. Thinking about getting old and having way too much time on my hands while waiting for fate to do with me what it will (and it will for each and every one of us) drives me to enjoy life (work, personal and community). So, while you wait for that moment to take a break from work, or for that week where you can unplug, just consider (for a moment) that for some of us, a true vacation is the complete opposite. For some, a vacation is every day. It's the chance to be working on the art/work we were meant to do. For some (people like me), we feel blessed that everyday is what most might consider a vacation. The challenge is that this world is hard to imagine when you're living in The Matrix ("what's this. Mitch? Your work day is like a vacation? Are you on drugs?"). Always remember: "you take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." The difference is that I can't show you anything. You have to show it to yourself.
So, red pill or blue pill?
Tags:
blog
blogging
creativity
incompatible
morpheus
neo
systems
the matrix
vacation
work life balance
December 26, 2010
The New Small
Episode #234 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.
Phil Simon is an IT guy and a small business owner. He just published his third business book, The New Small. We often forget that a small business now has access to many kinds of technology that used to be reserved for major corporations with budgets and infrastructures to make them deliver. The world has changed so much and The New Small looks at the many shifts and advances in technology. Marketers still struggle with technology and IT, and this chat with Phil Simon shines a light on where we're at... and how impressive, easy and accessible it is - if you just open up your eyes. Enjoy the conversation...
You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes ): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #234.
Tags:
advertising
bite size edits
blog
blogging
blue sky factory
book oven
cast of dads
cc chapman
chris brogan
christopher s penn
david usher
digital dads
digital marketing
facebook
facebook group
hugh mcguire
in over your head
itunes
julien smith
librivox
managing the gray
marie mai
marketing
marketing over coffee
media hacks
new marketing labs
online social network
phil simon
podcast
podcasting
six pixels of separation
social media 101
social media marketing
strategy
the new small
the next wave of technologies
trust agents
twist image
why new systems fail
The New Small
Episode #234 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.
Phil Simon is an IT guy and a small business owner. He just published his third business book, The New Small. We often forget that a small business now has access to many kinds of technology that used to be reserved for major corporations with budgets and infrastructures to make them deliver. The world has changed so much and The New Small looks at the many shifts and advances in technology. Marketers still struggle with technology and IT, and this chat with Phil Simon shines a light on where we're at... and how impressive, easy and accessible it is - if you just open up your eyes. Enjoy the conversation...
You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes ): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #234.
Tags:
advertising
bite size edits
blog
blogging
blue sky factory
book oven
cast of dads
cc chapman
chris brogan
christopher s penn
david usher
digital dads
digital marketing
facebook
facebook group
hugh mcguire
in over your head
itunes
julien smith
librivox
managing the gray
marie mai
marketing
marketing over coffee
media hacks
new marketing labs
online social network
phil simon
podcast
podcasting
six pixels of separation
social media 101
social media marketing
strategy
the new small
the next wave of technologies
trust agents
twist image
why new systems fail
It's The Position And Principle That Brings An Idea To Life
Whether you're trying to brand a new product or service or write a speech that will change the world, there is one universal truth...
It is - and always will be - about the position and principle - that gets an idea to come to life and how it spreads. Steve Paikin of The Agenda with Steve Paikin had this fascinating conversation with Ted Sorensen (John F. Kennedy's speechwriter and the person many credit with the infamous line, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country") about what it takes to write a speech that will change the world and change people's minds.
If you're interested in Marketing, communications, advertising, messaging, public speaking and getting ideas to spread, spend the next twelve minutes watching this...
Sadly, Sorensen passed away in October of this year.
Tags:
advertising
communications
ideas
john f kennedy
marketing
messaging
public speaking
speech writing
speechwriter
steve paikin
ted sorensen
the agenda with steve paikin
December 25, 2010
Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #27
Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?
My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Rednod, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for each other (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".
Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:
The Things He Carried - The Atlantic . "It's the holidays, which means travel for many of us. In Europe, vacationers are frozen to their respective runways and train tracks; here in North America, we're wringing our hands about the TSA and travel delays. In this 2008 exposé in The Atlantic , Jeffrey Goldberg (helped by Bruce Schneier , a rare voice of sanity in the security world) pranks airport security. His mischief is boundless: waving Hezbollah flags under the noses of guards, making fake boarding passes, and mimicking TSA squiggles to clear security. Yikes. Safe travels indeed." (Alistair for Hugh).
A New 'Miracle on 34th St.,' This Time Without Macy's - The New York Times . "It's time for some holiday spirit. Here's some stuff I learned this week. First, the 1947 Christmas classic, Miracle on 34th Street , may be the all-time best product placement, with actors vowing loyalty to the store on the silver screen. In the original, Macy 's role was purely to make the story seem real, but the company bowed out of the 1994 remake -- possibly because a sub-plot involving the store's hard times was too close to the truth. This forced filmmakers to invent a fake store ("Coles") and even a fake parade." (Alistair for Mitch).
How to create a startup country - Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence . "I read a post recently about a lack of utopian vision. Well here is one, coming from Patri Friedman , grandson of free-market theorist, Milton Friedman . The idea goes something like this: government innovation isn't keeping up with the needs of society. Could the solution come from competition from innovative start-ups? That is, government start-ups? Friedman calls for a movement of Seasteading... building floating, autonomous city-states, that create societies from scratch. What could possibly go wrong? (And those of you who are novelists and screenwriters: start your engines. The plotline possibilities are endless)." (Hugh for Alistair).
Who Writes Wikipedia? - Raw Thought . "This is an old article, but it was fascinating. The general theory of Wikipedia is that a small group does the majority of the work. But this article, written in 2006 (!), analyzed some data on Wikipedia articles and found something quite different: while the majority of *edits* are done by a small number (about a thousand dedicated people), the majority of *content* comes from infrequent users who tend to contribute a significant amount to one article. Not sure if that is surprising, but it's always fun reading about Wikipedia." (Hugh for Mitch).
Data Visualization to Make Your Media Social - Search Engine Watch . "We tend to think of data as bits and bytes or zeroes and ones or something that might look halfway decent when displayed on either an Excel file or in some kind of chart. Infographics was one big deal this past year, but the lesson is deeper: if you're really looking to make an impression, stop thinking about your data in terms of text and start thinking about your data in terms of how to best display the information so anyone looking at it can understand what the data is 'saying.'" (Mitch for Alistair).
Why Blogs (Still) Aren't Dead...No Matter What You've Heard - The Regator . "Just because Mashable runs with a story, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's one hundred percent accurate. It's also important to know that they can (and have) changed the title of Blog posts when the facts of their stories have been called into question. That's only half of the story in this very interesting Blog post about what is really happening in the Blogosphere. The net result: Blogs still matter (no kidding) and - if you just dig a little bit - you'll also start uncovering that the content and interactions is getting better and better from a context and quality standpoint." (Mitch for Hugh).
Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.
Tags:
alistair croll
bitcurrent
bite-sized edits
blog
blogosphere
bruce schneier
complete web monitoring
data visualization
excel
free-market theory
gigaom
great links
hugh mcguire
human 20
infographic
jeffrey goldberg
kurzweil accelerating intelligence
librivox
link
linkbait
macys
managing bandwidth
mashable
media hacks
milton friedman
miracle on 34th street
patri friedman
raw thought
rednod
search engine watch
seasteading
security
social media
startup
the atlantic
the book oven
the new york times
the regator
travel
tsa
wikipedia
It's The Position And Principle That Brings An Idea To Life
Whether you're trying to brand a new product or service or write a speech that will change the world, there is one universal truth...
It is - and always will be - about the position and principle - that gets an idea to come to life and how it spreads. Steve Paikin of The Agenda with Steve Paikin had this fascinating conversation with Ted Sorensen (John F. Kennedy's speechwriter and the person many credit with the infamous line, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country") about what it takes to write a speech that will change the world and change people's minds.
If you're interested in Marketing, communications, advertising, messaging, public speaking and getting ideas to spread, spend the next twelve minutes watching this...
Sadly, Sorensen passed away in October of this year.
Tags:
advertising
communications
ideas
john f kennedy
marketing
messaging
public speaking
speech writing
speechwriter
steve paikin
ted sorensen
the agenda with steve paikin
Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #27
Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?
My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Rednod, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for each other (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".
Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:
The Things He Carried - The Atlantic . "It's the holidays, which means travel for many of us. In Europe, vacationers are frozen to their respective runways and train tracks; here in North America, we're wringing our hands about the TSA and travel delays. In this 2008 exposé in The Atlantic , Jeffrey Goldberg (helped by Bruce Schneier , a rare voice of sanity in the security world) pranks airport security. His mischief is boundless: waving Hezbollah flags under the noses of guards, making fake boarding passes, and mimicking TSA squiggles to clear security. Yikes. Safe travels indeed." (Alistair for Hugh).
A New 'Miracle on 34th St.,' This Time Without Macy's - The New York Times . "It's time for some holiday spirit. Here's some stuff I learned this week. First, the 1947 Christmas classic, Miracle on 34th Street , may be the all-time best product placement, with actors vowing loyalty to the store on the silver screen. In the original, Macy 's role was purely to make the story seem real, but the company bowed out of the 1994 remake -- possibly because a sub-plot involving the store's hard times was too close to the truth. This forced filmmakers to invent a fake store ("Coles") and even a fake parade." (Alistair for Mitch).
How to create a startup country - Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence . "I read a post recently about a lack of utopian vision. Well here is one, coming from Patri Friedman , grandson of free-market theorist, Milton Friedman . The idea goes something like this: government innovation isn't keeping up with the needs of society. Could the solution come from competition from innovative start-ups? That is, government start-ups? Friedman calls for a movement of Seasteading... building floating, autonomous city-states, that create societies from scratch. What could possibly go wrong? (And those of you who are novelists and screenwriters: start your engines. The plotline possibilities are endless)." (Hugh for Alistair).
Who Writes Wikipedia? - Raw Thought . "This is an old article, but it was fascinating. The general theory of Wikipedia is that a small group does the majority of the work. But this article, written in 2006 (!), analyzed some data on Wikipedia articles and found something quite different: while the majority of *edits* are done by a small number (about a thousand dedicated people), the majority of *content* comes from infrequent users who tend to contribute a significant amount to one article. Not sure if that is surprising, but it's always fun reading about Wikipedia." (Hugh for Mitch).
Data Visualization to Make Your Media Social - Search Engine Watch . "We tend to think of data as bits and bytes or zeroes and ones or something that might look halfway decent when displayed on either an Excel file or in some kind of chart. Infographics was one big deal this past year, but the lesson is deeper: if you're really looking to make an impression, stop thinking about your data in terms of text and start thinking about your data in terms of how to best display the information so anyone looking at it can understand what the data is 'saying.'" (Mitch for Alistair).
Why Blogs (Still) Aren't Dead...No Matter What You've Heard - The Regator . "Just because Mashable runs with a story, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's one hundred percent accurate. It's also important to know that they can (and have) changed the title of Blog posts when the facts of their stories have been called into question. That's only half of the story in this very interesting Blog post about what is really happening in the Blogosphere. The net result: Blogs still matter (no kidding) and - if you just dig a little bit - you'll also start uncovering that the content and interactions is getting better and better from a context and quality standpoint." (Mitch for Hugh).
Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.
Tags:
alistair croll
bitcurrent
bite-sized edits
blog
blogosphere
bruce schneier
complete web monitoring
data visualization
excel
free-market theory
gigaom
great links
hugh mcguire
human 20
infographic
jeffrey goldberg
kurzweil accelerating intelligence
librivox
link
linkbait
macys
managing bandwidth
mashable
media hacks
milton friedman
miracle on 34th street
patri friedman
raw thought
rednod
search engine watch
seasteading
security
social media
startup
the atlantic
the book oven
the new york times
the regator
travel
tsa
wikipedia
Traditional Media Getting New Media Right
Cry all you want that traditional media is dead (and/or dying), out of touch or out of date, but it's just not the case.
I'm often asked where I find the time to read everything, or where I get inspiration for Blog posts, newspaper articles, business book concepts, speaking topics or ideas for clients. This may shock you, but more often than not, it's not from a tweet on Twitter, a Facebook status update, a peer's Blog or even a Podcast. In fact, more often than not, it's from a traditional news media outlet.
What? How can that be?
Traditional news media outlets still have access to information (and power) that most independent Bloggers don't have. Their content creators are journalists and story-tellers who know how to pull a story together, and you can be (fairly) certain that the piece is (somewhat) vetted for truthiness. On top of that, many of these traditional media outlets are nervous about their future, so they are allocating space and resources to covering all things new media, technology, marketing, etc...
Here are 8 great traditional media outlets who constantly and consistently have great new media, marketing and technology content...
Advertising Age - Digital.
The Atlantic - Technology section.
CBC - Spark.
The Economist - Science & Technology.
Harvard Business Review - Blogs section.
The New York Times - Business Day - Media & Advertising.
PBS - MediaShift.
The Wall Street Journal - All Things Digital.
What traditional media outlets do you think are doing a great job at covering new media?
Tags:
advertising age
all things digital
blog
blogger
business book
business day
cbc
content
digital media
facebook
harvard business review
journalist
marketing
mass media
mediashift
new media
news media outlet
newspaper article
pbs
podcast
science
spark
speaking
technology
the atlantic
the economist
the new york times
the wall street journal
traditional media
twitter
December 24, 2010
Traditional Media Getting New Media Right
Cry all you want that traditional media is dead (and/or dying), out of touch or out of date, but it's just not the case.
I'm often asked where I find the time to read everything, or where I get inspiration for Blog posts, newspaper articles, business book concepts, speaking topics or ideas for clients. This may shock you, but more often than not, it's not from a tweet on Twitter, a Facebook status update, a peer's Blog or even a Podcast. In fact, more often than not, it's from a traditional news media outlet.
What? How can that be?
Traditional news media outlets still have access to information (and power) that most independent Bloggers don't have. Their content creators are journalists and story-tellers who know how to pull a story together, and you can be (fairly) certain that the piece is (somewhat) vetted for truthiness. On top of that, many of these traditional media outlets are nervous about their future, so they are allocating space and resources to covering all things new media, technology, marketing, etc...
Here are 8 great traditional media outlets who constantly and consistently have great new media, marketing and technology content...
Advertising Age - Digital.
The Atlantic - Technology section.
CBC - Spark.
The Economist - Science & Technology.
Harvard Business Review - Blogs section.
The New York Times - Business Day - Media & Advertising.
PBS - MediaShift.
The Wall Street Journal - All Things Digital.
What traditional media outlets do you think are doing a great job at covering new media?
Tags:
advertising age
all things digital
blog
blogger
business book
business day
cbc
content
digital media
facebook
harvard business review
journalist
marketing
mass media
mediashift
new media
news media outlet
newspaper article
pbs
podcast
science
spark
speaking
technology
the atlantic
the economist
the new york times
the wall street journal
traditional media
twitter
Six Pixels of Separation
- Mitch Joel's profile
- 80 followers
