Due to easterly winds blowing a steady one-hundred and thirty knots my plane home, is very, very late. In fact I think it took off sometime on Thursday but due to the blowy jet stream it's just been hovering, mostly over Arkansas, unable to make any real headway.
So, as usual, I'm a bit testy (others, including my wife would say I'm grumpy whereas my mother would call me Chief Thundercloud but since she's not here and the Rocket Scientist is engrossed in her copy of
And so it is in this state that I hereby object to the Idiot's Guidification to blogs. I must have been brushing my teeth when God came down on Earth and decreed that blogs should be nothing but a collection of how-to guides. More and more the sites in my bookmarks folder are publishing what-you-should-be-doing-to-be-like-me crap.
There is talk about the impending Web 2.0 bubble that's tied to venture capital and companies that code their software in a certain way. But I think there will be another type of burst. It won't be in your face apparent as are devaluations and layoffs, but you'll find more and more unwritten animosity towards those who try to increase their pagerank by writing specifically to keywords, buzzwords and fads. Besides, there is only so much of this type of information to write about before these blogs will start eating their own or, gasp, merging!
Blogs were more interesting before sites like Lifehacker came along. Not that there is anything wrong with Lifehacker it's a great site, but I'd rather spend more time living than learning what and how to hack living. Sure we're talking seconds per post but dammit those things add up. There is no returning to the days of old, that much is certain, but maybe it's possible that blogs will move on and find other things to write about other than trying to copy the how-to-hack theme/style/genre.
That said should someone write a how-to for avoiding one-hundred and thirty knot head winds for the pilots of Jet Blue I would appreciate it very much. Naturally I'd write it myself but I'm forty-two folders short of having any real substantial information other than: fly around it.
Join the fray by reading through and commenting at the end.
Exactly. Apparently I'm the only one not expert enough to tell people how they should be hacking their life.
Hopefully someone like you will come along and knock people back to their senses.
Could be worse. Instead of Arkansas you could be hovering in... oh wait. Ya, sucks to be you.
What you need to be worried about is when the airlines start providing blogging terminals where people can write about their in-flight experiences. Imagine developing an in-flight readership... oh how marvelously absurd!
Go and read some stories instead.
I try to avoid those blogs like the plague. Most of my browsing has to make it through the first cut of my RSS reader before I even venture further.
That being said, here's a site, BLDGBLOG, that never ceases to amaze me. Most of the time, is a collection of fantastic images and odd commentary. Not a 'life hack' in site.
There is good stuff out there.
Agreed. I don't know when everyone got so damned concerned with productivity, but it seems to me that I can get a lot more done when I'm not filing and sorting and writing little notes all the time.
How about offering up a good cross section of weblogs that do interets you.
Hvae you seen a counselor about negativity? I know I need to.
What do counselors know about negativity? Counseling never worked for me.
Does anyone have a "How-two" for having offspring. Some parents out here in the boomer generation are wanting to enjoy some grandkiders before the Third World War starts with Iran. I will buy a sea port for that kind of info.
Would it be safe to say these GTD sites can bring out the OCD in people? I think so.
But Jared, is that a bad thing?
While I tend to agree with you, despite being an Associate Editor for Lifehacker, I think you'd be surprised at how many people actually value some of those short little life-hack-type posts.
There's a demand for that stuff believe it or not. And the goal, for me anyway, is to keep things short, simple and to the point so that you can get on with your life.
Oh, and for the record, we really try and limit our posts to things we think are useful and don't intentionally post for pagerank or any of that stuff. It can be hard though...like you imply, there's only so much useful information out there and quite often we're left reaching...
Keith, you can post entire transcripts of This Old House to Lifehacker and that would be fine because it's a site devoted to that type of information. My smokey airport road-rage was directed towards those sites that convert over to that type of content in order to gank Google for what it's worth.
Getting people to come look at your site is easier said than done though.
A few "How to's" really bring in the punters. That being said I don't have any on my site :D
I don't really know how to do anything other than be a big dork. Maybe I could do a tutorial on that. hmmm.
Step one: set up a blog …
Like the sites I hit this weekend...
I was looking for BBQ grills and the number one result for a search on a Charbroil Grill was a page that consisted of a Google add and nothing else. The number two result was a page on About.com with a one paragraph blurb surrounded by Google ads.
And people still think Google is working properly...I blame Google as well. I mean if they provided better results then this kind of BS content would have no place on the Web.
Keith - Which google are you using? Charbroil Grills gets some good results on this end. Come to think of it, I'd sort of like one. I'm not defending google by any means, but my results certainly vary from yours.
Which google are you using?
Shazam! Keith you gonna take that or put on a display of Lifehacka-fu?
Blogs were more interesting when they were still under the radar. Once the word "trend" and "popular" and "Fox News has a blog" enters the fray it starts getting watered down. However, more words equal more variety. At least I hope so. And in the end, blogs are like anything else in life - do the research and you'll find what you're looking fo'.
Steve -- well, crap, I don't remember my exact search phrase, although I think it was "Charbroil grill" but if you know Google, you get a different one almost everyday. I can tell you that the second result was about.com. They actually have a BBQ blogger guy...
Greg -- I guess I've got to take it ....
I didn't know google was able to change so quickly. I guess I should get my google facts straight before I bust out with more 'which google...' lines.
Saying google three times in two sentences might be an illegal commenting action.
I didn't know google was able to change so quickly.
Google changes and spins so fast it'll take your head off if your not careful.