Facebook must Fail

Read a recent comment on the decline of Facebook.

It's just like any other innovation. And you don't need to be an expert or an analyst. Someone paid to have an opinion on tech matters. People will always want something else. Facebook takes time. And for many it takes a lot of time. Now unless I become an addict, I realize, "Hey?! Where did my life go." ...and Facebook...done. I need something less time consuming and just as falsely fulfilling. Who has that for me?

As an experiment: If you know any high school kids, then ask a few about what they use to say meaningless things to people they may or may not actually know. I suspect you will find not many mention the billion dollar advertising machine that is Facebook. So if current high schoolers don't care what ten year future is there, at least for now?

Ask yourself then. What do these social sites make? Your answer I suspect will reveal they make nothing. And with the other tools available to you, you can do without any of  the connectedness social media provides.

All of us know, there is no reality to hundreds of friends, thousands of followers, millions of views. You know the people you see. And you know the people you talk to every day day.

What is the next innovation in social media? A face to face conversation.

get the name of the dog

i've been listening to the podcast version of Roy Peter Clark's "Writing Tools". first, i recommend you give the time to these short podcasts. i think you'll find that these tools will work for your public speaking and storytelling (which should describe your public speaking method).

thought I would comment a bit on the tip titled "get the name of the dog". your story comes alive when you use describe in detail the color of the rotary phone on the wall, the color, model, and year of the car, the exact weather of the moment. notice this in the next news article you read. i think you will discover journalists usually give "the name of the dog" even in a story of just a few hundred words.

so, the next time you tell a story; describe some element of the plot in some combination of brief but significant detail. see if you can win that "my story is better than your story" conversation exchange that characterizes most adult interactions.

why does attention improve at the end of the talk?

it is what it is

this is such a defeatist idea and cliche. i hope most of us realize it is a cliche. a trite meaningless expression. something that lets us connect and commiserate with each other.

first lets consider what is negative in this phrase. and then as i plan to do in all cases, lets consider the power for good such sad statements can effect in our lives

ok. what's negative. this "it is" speaks of surrender to me. some may suggest that the comment merely resigns to the past and the unalterable. i suggest that thinking this way also colors our future. and the colors are gray and black and beige. (you know boring, austere colors. don't get me wrong the black and gray are my colors of choice. i always look slightly dressed up. good for my image.)

if my filters to the past color my perspective hopeless, don't you suppose that same filter blinds my sight to hopes, opportunities, and possibilities ahead.

the positives. "it is" because i can do more. i can look at the past and accept my chance for improvement. "it is what it is" this is my chance to create deliberative future actions that shapes the "it" to my vision for life, hope, and happiness. sure something went badly or horribly wrong. redefine the past to terms that positively effect the future. sure these trite platitudes i spout may annoy you. but come on you folks with the half full glasses love this stuff. we all should. emotional response is a choice for most of us. make yours a choice you can live with in your "what it is" present".

a graphic i decided fits my post

contemplating zero

i think that most of us are afraid. we are afraid we make the wrong choice for a major. we are afraid we'll choose the wrong career. the wrong second job. the wrong go back to school degree. the wrong mortgage.

you get the idea

it seems to me advice experts want you to see opportunity in failure. a new sun rising over the mountain brightening a day of hope and possibility.

you know what failure is just what we should think it is

it means our idea was bad. our plan was bad. our widget was a disaster

failure is not the hope of the new. it is the reasonable abandonment of a stupid choice. a terrible decision.

own your failure. reject it. and forget about. get back on the horse. stand after your fall. dust yourself off. start over. embrace the emotional or physical pain of your mistake. make it a part of who you are

and please don't do something stupid twice. some single actions won't offer you any recovery. if i can't say dumb things on my own blog, then why have it.

in a very short time

many of us have a very short view of our futures. we may not see much beyond tomorrow. and some of us don't look beyond today.

we suggest the key to our future success. all of us cultivate the same skills mastered by those that shaped much of what we have today.

the world needs visionary people. there is much that can happen in our moments of dedicated imagining. picture yourself in 1 year, 5 years, 50 years if you think you have that many.

those things you see in that personal vision are the images of what will be. choose something that bothers you. think on a way to solve the problem. combine existing tech and principles. this imaginary chimera you create is your answer. how much time do you have to give us the next wheel, light bulb, integrated processor, antigrav machine, transporter? this survey sets your deadline

facebook likes & twittter followers

likes and tweeters. we covet them. we pursue them. we are probably sad when we have an un "like" or a de-"tweet".

is any of it meaningful?

(from the socialskinny)

what facebook pages did you like last week? how about yesterday? don't check your page. you can't remember can you.

are you following 1000 @twitters.what's number 237 doing? right now. you don't know. if you are honest with yourself you probably don't care.

so right after you "like" the mentalogica page and follow @mentalogica on twitter. go read a book. some of you will remember them. they are those head or hand sized things with paper and words and titles. but please; books about vampires or zombies are not allowed.

#youneedtounderstandthat

now at twitter. we think we communicate when we talk. all of us know that just isn't true.

take the time to watch a conversation. watch body language. is the listener engaged by the speaker. what happens when the speaker gives a pause. does the listener remark at all on what was just said.

not usually.

the new speaker says something of self. nothing of what they just heard. you do this too. you just don't care. or you just don't notice.

figure this below. good luck!

amateur web philosophy

don't beg. don't self promote. do write original content. do link to other sites. don't link to other sites. don't write more than 100 words. do write extended essays. do this do that.

how does a site become popular. the experts have no sure idea. they will take all the money you will give to sell you certainty.

sometimes new ideas click with many. sometimes with none. people don't know what they want until they see it. or someone has enough money and influence to tell them what they want. (think fruit named company).

will anyone read this? the experts say you want original content. we're supposed to pretend we don't care. but, if we didn't care why would we have this site at all.

we say none of us really know what we want.

but, if we consider long enough we may figure what we need.

what do you need?

Attractive: what does that mean?

Trending now on twitter. 5ThingsIfindAttractive.

Juergen Schmidhuber a computer scientist has thought and researched the idea of beauty. He says the most beautiful faces are the most average and simplest to remember. Somehow we are able to turn these beautiful faces into easily stored visual memories. Read many of his ideas at his THEORY OF BEAUTY &LOW-COMPLEXITY ART page.

Low complexity, beautiful face

leadership and meditation

at forbes.com [the power of committed mediation for executives]

quote of note

“ It is better to have useless knowledge than to know nothing. ” — Seneca

at the european graduate school a short biography

privacy and philosophy part two

from philosophy news Privacy a Thing of the Past? Part II

privacy and philosophy part one

from philosophy news Privacy a Thing of the Past? Part I