Google Reader is gone. No farewell message. No thank you for the support. In fact, I can see my feeds in Google Reader, I just can’t interact with them.
A pretty clear indication that Google really doesn’t give a Tinker’s Damn for customers – only their data and the dollars they can glean from it. This whole experience has had a profound impact on me from the first moment months ago when I first learned that Google was killing Google Reader for no good reason [and believe me, I’ve read them all over the past few months].
This stupid move, along with other ones like Windows 8 by Microsoft leave me wondering where I can place my trust. Oddly enough, I find myself rethinking open source products like Ubuntu, Firefox and Thunderbird. Who knows where that will lead?!
In the meantime, thank you Google Reader. Thanks to you, I consumed over a half a million articles in the past 6.5 years of use and I am what I am today because of what I learned from you. And, thank you feedly for stepping into the breach! I have loved you for over 4 years and used you alongside Google Reader. I’m glad you won the reader race!
Chatting with a new client in Australia yesterday, he asked the question should I care about Google+. The answer, of course, is an overwhelming yes! Here’s independent proof…
I know I’m opening myself up to a flame war here but I’m going to come right out and say it; the Mac is just not worth the money, especially if you do most of your work in the cloud.
There was a time when the Mac was demonstrably better at some tasks than others and that’s why is used it as my primary platform for 15 years. Heck, I even worked for Apple for 3 years I believed in the product and company so much!
These days though, in my work as an internet consultant, I use Mac, Windows AND Ubuntu and I am fluent in all three. I see no perceptible value in using Mac over the other two; in fact, it’s more the other way around. I like my 64bit Windows 7 machine but as Windows 8 [which appears to be another Vista to me] grabs more desktop real estate, I’m spending more and more time honing my Linux skills. After all, the Ubuntu operating system offers many of the benefits of a Linux or UNIX based operating system that looks good, but it uses inexpensive Windows hardware – the best of all possible worlds! Especially if all you’re doing is using the internet…
Right now, I think the best combination of hardware and software for business blogging is a Windows 7 computer although that may change soon. No matter what, however, you won’t find me paying for a new Mac – I don’t need the industrial design when I’m just looking at a monitor they’re just not worth the cost especially when Firefox, Chrome and Safari run on all of the major computing platforms! Questions? Feedback?
Thanks to Tim Kastelle for recommending this awesome book for thought leaders or “idea entrepreneurs” as the author calls them:
In Breaking Out, idea developer and adviser John Butman shows how the methods of today’s most popular “idea entrepreneurs”—including dog psychologistCesar Millan, French lifestyle guru Mireille GuilianoFrench Women Don’t Get Fat, TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie, and many others—can help you take an idea public and build influence for it.It isn’t easy. Butman argues that the rise of the “ideaplex” TED, Twitter, NPR, YouTube, online learning, and all the rest has caused such an explosion in the creation and sharing of ideas that it has become much easier to go public—yet much harder to gain influence. But it can be done.Based on his own experience in advising content experts worldwide, Butman shows how the idea entrepreneur breaks out—by combining personal narrative with rich content, creating many forms of expression from books to live events, developing real-world practices, and creating “respiration” around the idea such that other people can breathe it in and make it their own. The resulting idea platform can reach many different audience groups and continue to build influence for many years and even decades.If you have an idea and want to make a difference in your organization, build a change movement in your community, or improve the world in some way—this book will get you started on the journey to idea entrepreneurship.
The title belongs to writer Tony Bradley, not me, but I like the conclusion of his article in Forbes:
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that privacy is “dead”. Suffice it to say, our relationship with privacy has changed as a function of the benefits we can receive in exchange for that privacy. The reality is that you’re not completely giving up your privacy. Your neighbors, or the stranger you pass on the street won’t know anything about you. You’re choosing to enter into a mutually beneficial arrangement that exchanges personal information for services. You’re surrendering some of your privacy to Google, and you’re putting some trust in Google that it will both guard your personal information so your privacy isn’t truly violated, and that it will not do anything shady or unethical with your data itself.
That’s a lot of faith to put in Google–or any company for that matter. But, if you’re willing to take that leap of faith your technology can do amazing things and make your life simpler and more efficient. The more integrated you are in the Google ecosystem–the more Google services you use, and the more extensively you use them–the more value you will get from the relevant, context-aware features Google has put in place.
So shoot me — I’m now a Star Trek Voyager fan — especially beginning with Season 3. One of the more interesting character studies documents the relationship between Seven of Nine and the only child on the Voyager, Naomi Wildman. Naomi aspires to be more ‘borglike‘ but helps Seven become more human. The following exchange takes place in “The Voyager Conspiracy“…
“Quantity is less relevant than quality — you must be able to interpret the data and enjoy the process…”
When you aspire to transformational thought leadership, remember it’s the quality of the data that counts but more importantly, you must be able to interpret the data and enjoy the process…
The title is not a typo. Watch the first video and you’ll know what I mean!
Some thoughts on searching for the ‘middle way’ and attempting to apply it to transformational thought leadership. Some very rough thinking along the perilous path of ‘becoming known’…
5/10/2013; apparently I blew the first video. I’ve been informed that there’s no sound but I won’t be able to redo it until Monday. Enjoy the rest of the post…
My path in life is to help thinkers use technology to become thought leaders. One of the best things about this path is that I can do it from anywhere! I choose to live in Algoma Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan about 30 miles east of Green Bay and every day on my grueling 3.3 mile commute I get to pass by the lake and admire the view. This morning’s sunrise was particularly spectacular! Inspiration like this gets my juices flowing so I can do better creative work for my clients. How can I help you?
So many people call themselves thought leaders now – but they aren’t. To be a thought leader takes some doing. It’s not so much about being original as it is about putting things together in an original way. It comes down to packaging your knowledge, skills, abilities, experiences, and yes, your thoughts in a way that makes you media worthy and worth listening to by your audience—a huge audience. Follow these nine steps to get going on the path to be respected, heard and reverberated out into the world.
Susan has some great ideas on how to achieve thought leadership, however, I think she leaves out one important point in her article: you have to document your work in a way that people can find it! Maybe I’m being Captain Obvious here, but while you read her article, think about how you can leverage business blogging and social networking to provide social proof of your thought leadership…
If this is all geeks to you comment below and asked me how you can get started! I have developed an efficient, cost-effective workflow that you can use as a platform for transformational thought leadership…
Have you ever had an idea for a blog post, but before you can write about it, someone else beat you to it? If you write about social media and technology like I do, you probably answered "all the time!" It’s actually quite rare for me to write on a topic that no one else has already. Jeff Bullas goes so far as to say that everything has already been said. I don’t buy into that 100%, but I see his point.
One of the most common instances for me is when I decide to write about an update or development in social media, something "news" oriented. Most of the time, I discover latest developments thanks to the news feeds I’ve set up in Feedly. If Google or Facebook makes an announcement to their blog, I will see it and have an opportunity to write about it. But then as I’m flipping through my other Feedly feeds, I will see several articles from other bloggers talking about the exact same news!
When that happens to me, I curate the best content — just like I did here! Of course it’s always good to add value and you can do that by agreeing, disagreeing or adding to the discussion. Curators and museums don’t create original content for their exhibits and you don’t have to rely on your own resources to have an effective blog…
![4fcaeaaf838874222f7fa0d40206d0a5[1]](http://www.business.toddlohenry.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/4fcaeaaf838874222f7fa0d40206d0a51.jpg "4fcaeaaf838874222f7fa0d40206d0a5[1]")
Susan Harrow writes:
Bright, shiny objects! 
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