Louis Gray asks if leading bloggers are getting “blog fatigue?”
It’s worse than that. I’m just really tired — I’ve spread myself too thin in too many different directions. A new kid on the way is staring me in the face, too. So is my email. Everytime I sit down to do an email two more come in. It’s really amazing. The other day I answered a ton of email on the plane (I’m far more productive on the plane, no Twitter is there to interrupt me) and when I reconnected about 1.5x as many as I answered came back! Hint: the answer to email overload is not to answer any email. Yikes.
Tim Ferriss’ book, the 4-hour Workweek, is getting me to look at my life differently. I already do some of what he suggests but the book really is a great way to evaluate what you’re doing. Even if the book is full of stuff you’ll never use, it does get you to sit down and look at life differently. The book is great, I’ve already recommended it to several people and it sure does challenge you to make sure you’re moving your life in a direction that’s good for you, not just for everyone else.
Anyway, might explain why I’m leaving shortly to go to San Francisco to attend the KFOG Kaboom concert and Fireworks show. I’m meeting Pandora’s CTO, Tom Conrad, at the Apple store at 3 p.m. then we’re headed over to the concert after that. Meet you at the front gate at 5 p.m. if you wanna do a photowalking kind of thing. Bring your tripod and a cable release if you want to take photos of the fireworks.
The other thing is that my link blog, my video show, and my Twitter account have taken up a lot of slack. Instead of linking to a ton of stuff here, I just link to it over on my link blog. And Twitter is more fun. More interactive. I get answers back immediately. There’s not the pressure to be erudite there (no trolls).
Some other things going on? My back has been hurting for a long time, and it’s getting harder to sit still to blog and I haven’t been exercising lately, I’ve been traveling too much, and I haven’t been paying enough attention to my friends. So, something in my life has gotta give, especially with a kid on the way.
UPDATE: Maryam has some friends over for lunch and they didn’t know any of the KFOG Kaboom musicians so off to YouTube we went. Here’s who we’ll be listening to: Kenny Wayne Shepherd; Ozomatli; and Guster.
Scobleizer 
Geeks get excited about some nifty thing, when it gets used widely move on to the next nifty thing, and so on and so on.
This happened with phone, email, mobile phone, IM, blog, wiki, twitter…
What next?
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Geeks get excited about some nifty thing, when it gets used widely move on to the next nifty thing, and so on and so on.
This happened with phone, email, mobile phone, IM, blog, wiki, twitter…
What next?
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Robert, no disrespect, but I think you stopped being a blogger when you left Microsoft. I mean, you are still going through the motions, but more and more it seems forced or half hearted. Of course, you still have your good days, but it’s not like it used to be. You’re not alone – I’ve noticed Fred Wilson is the same. Anyway, whatever, the conversation is the thing and I don’t think you’ve stopped having conversations.
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Robert, no disrespect, but I think you stopped being a blogger when you left Microsoft. I mean, you are still going through the motions, but more and more it seems forced or half hearted. Of course, you still have your good days, but it’s not like it used to be. You’re not alone – I’ve noticed Fred Wilson is the same. Anyway, whatever, the conversation is the thing and I don’t think you’ve stopped having conversations.
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Ivan: I agree. I’ve been pouring most of my heart into the video show. That requires me to be away from the keyboard. Doing good blogging requires you to be at the keyboard.
On the other hand there isn’t ANY blogger who is reading the numbers of feeds I am. That’s the first prerequisite of having a conversation: listening. It’s just that talking back requires me to sit down and write and I just don’t have the time anymore and, when I do, it’s taken up with email. I’m getting probably 20x more email now than when I worked at Microsoft.
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Ivan: I agree. I’ve been pouring most of my heart into the video show. That requires me to be away from the keyboard. Doing good blogging requires you to be at the keyboard.
On the other hand there isn’t ANY blogger who is reading the numbers of feeds I am. That’s the first prerequisite of having a conversation: listening. It’s just that talking back requires me to sit down and write and I just don’t have the time anymore and, when I do, it’s taken up with email. I’m getting probably 20x more email now than when I worked at Microsoft.
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I’m sorry Robert but I just don’t get it. Tired of what? Commenting on stuff? Transcribing an opinion from your brain to a digital screen? Is that really that hard? Maybe there’s some element to commentary blogging that I’m missing, but it’s not like you’re having to create new material every week (ahem… like me 🙂 ). I don’t see how you can be “tired”.
If you’ve found other things that you find more fun for the time you have that’s one thing (and it sounds like that’s the case), but I don’t buy the I-don’t-have-the-energy-for-it-anymore argument.
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I’m sorry Robert but I just don’t get it. Tired of what? Commenting on stuff? Transcribing an opinion from your brain to a digital screen? Is that really that hard? Maybe there’s some element to commentary blogging that I’m missing, but it’s not like you’re having to create new material every week (ahem… like me 🙂 ). I don’t see how you can be “tired”.
If you’ve found other things that you find more fun for the time you have that’s one thing (and it sounds like that’s the case), but I don’t buy the I-don’t-have-the-energy-for-it-anymore argument.
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Robert, I disagree with Ivan. You’re still a blogger. But the focus has changed. Your job is now video focused, and you’re nailing that, but being a blogger isn’t priority #1. As you noted with family and other issues, there are other things pulling for your time. As you already know, I take in about 500 feeds a day on Google Reader, and still am about half your pace. I don’t do Twitter. It’s all about how we prioritize. You can do a blog with 20% of the cycles or 40% that you once did.
On my blog, I don’t talk about work. It’s a self-imposed rule. If I did talk about work, it’d be even more busy, but when work spikes, I miss days too, though hopefully not too many. But I believe in blogging as a medium and will keep pushing until the next big thing. Hopefully all we’ve done so far can be migrated.
My note on blog fatigue wasn’t 100% toward you, of course. Jason Calacanis is clearly taking a hiatus, and Bonnie Wren, a favorite around our house, is doing the same. Statisticians say two data points don’t indicate a trend, but three… 🙂
Keep up all the good work here and elsewhere. I promise not to send you e-mail.
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Robert, I disagree with Ivan. You’re still a blogger. But the focus has changed. Your job is now video focused, and you’re nailing that, but being a blogger isn’t priority #1. As you noted with family and other issues, there are other things pulling for your time. As you already know, I take in about 500 feeds a day on Google Reader, and still am about half your pace. I don’t do Twitter. It’s all about how we prioritize. You can do a blog with 20% of the cycles or 40% that you once did.
On my blog, I don’t talk about work. It’s a self-imposed rule. If I did talk about work, it’d be even more busy, but when work spikes, I miss days too, though hopefully not too many. But I believe in blogging as a medium and will keep pushing until the next big thing. Hopefully all we’ve done so far can be migrated.
My note on blog fatigue wasn’t 100% toward you, of course. Jason Calacanis is clearly taking a hiatus, and Bonnie Wren, a favorite around our house, is doing the same. Statisticians say two data points don’t indicate a trend, but three… 🙂
Keep up all the good work here and elsewhere. I promise not to send you e-mail.
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Nima: let’s see. I read 633 feeds. EVERY DAY. I do at least one video EVERY DAY. I have hundreds of emails to answer EVERY DAY. I’m Vice President of a startup company and have to work to keep that going. I have tons of speeches to give (in just past two weeks I’ve been to Phoenix, Cancun, Atlanta). I have a wife and family. I have friends that I want to see and have a beer with. And doing a good blog post takes a while to do. Oh, and I have a column with Fast Company now too. Among other things.
So, I’m tired. I don’t “just blog.” I’ve also been doing this since December 15, 2000. How long have you done it? How much email do you have? How big is your audience? How many demands are being placed on your time?
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Nima: let’s see. I read 633 feeds. EVERY DAY. I do at least one video EVERY DAY. I have hundreds of emails to answer EVERY DAY. I’m Vice President of a startup company and have to work to keep that going. I have tons of speeches to give (in just past two weeks I’ve been to Phoenix, Cancun, Atlanta). I have a wife and family. I have friends that I want to see and have a beer with. And doing a good blog post takes a while to do. Oh, and I have a column with Fast Company now too. Among other things.
So, I’m tired. I don’t “just blog.” I’ve also been doing this since December 15, 2000. How long have you done it? How much email do you have? How big is your audience? How many demands are being placed on your time?
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“Am I getting “blog fatigue?””
How do you get fatigued from writing 2-3 tiny 3 paragraph articles per day with absolutely no fact checking or editorial review what so ever?
(I’d hate to see the stress levels of people that have diaries. Wewh… boy)?
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“Am I getting “blog fatigue?””
How do you get fatigued from writing 2-3 tiny 3 paragraph articles per day with absolutely no fact checking or editorial review what so ever?
(I’d hate to see the stress levels of people that have diaries. Wewh… boy)?
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I always wanted to code a blogger bot that takes RSS feeds, scrambles the ones with the most hits and spews them back out as editorials using a dictionary of commonly used blogger jargon. Thus relieving the stress of blogging. Writing a brand new SQL 2003 complaint server leaves me little time though. 😦
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I always wanted to code a blogger bot that takes RSS feeds, scrambles the ones with the most hits and spews them back out as editorials using a dictionary of commonly used blogger jargon. Thus relieving the stress of blogging. Writing a brand new SQL 2003 complaint server leaves me little time though. 😦
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Chris: I’m not getting fatigued from blogging. It’s all the other stuff around it that goes on. And no fact checking? Most of my blog articles come from conversations with people. Just Thursday night, for instance, I was at a San Francisco party until 1 a.m. doing a ton of relationship and reporting work. That’s the part of this that you don’t see. And that was after doing 24-hours in Atlanta, flying redeyes, and after spending the weekend at Forbes’ thing in Cancun.
I don’t see any other blogger doing that much travel, speaking gigs, and reading as many feeds as I do. Until you do you have no clue about the process that goes into doing what I do.
Oh, and I want you to go and count how many blog posts of mine have factual errors compared with the number of posts I make. Then I want you to go back and count how many don’t get fixed within five hours of being posted. That number would probably fit on one hand. But, no need to worry about the truth here, right? Got it.
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Chris: I’m not getting fatigued from blogging. It’s all the other stuff around it that goes on. And no fact checking? Most of my blog articles come from conversations with people. Just Thursday night, for instance, I was at a San Francisco party until 1 a.m. doing a ton of relationship and reporting work. That’s the part of this that you don’t see. And that was after doing 24-hours in Atlanta, flying redeyes, and after spending the weekend at Forbes’ thing in Cancun.
I don’t see any other blogger doing that much travel, speaking gigs, and reading as many feeds as I do. Until you do you have no clue about the process that goes into doing what I do.
Oh, and I want you to go and count how many blog posts of mine have factual errors compared with the number of posts I make. Then I want you to go back and count how many don’t get fixed within five hours of being posted. That number would probably fit on one hand. But, no need to worry about the truth here, right? Got it.
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Robert, the blogosphere has become a destroyer of creative energy. Once you give in to its demands, you will never again achieve anything in the real world.
Blogging is dead for people who really want to do something.
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Robert, the blogosphere has become a destroyer of creative energy. Once you give in to its demands, you will never again achieve anything in the real world.
Blogging is dead for people who really want to do something.
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John: the blogosphere still is the best place to SHARE your creative energy. Watch my video of Adobe Illustrator, for instance. http://scobleizer.com/2007/05/11/the-latest-in-adobe-illustrator/
I really enjoyed doing that and it really shows how to do some cool stuff including animations for Flash, etc.
It took 60 minutes to drive to Adobe (no blogging); 60 minutes to film; it took Ryanne probably 30 minutes to edit and 90 minutes to compress and another few to upload. It also took hours of relationship work to get Adobe to let me interview that team, among others.
Hopefully it helps a few people get excited about graphic design and using tools like this which will lead, maybe, to another thing like JibJab.
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John: the blogosphere still is the best place to SHARE your creative energy. Watch my video of Adobe Illustrator, for instance. http://scobleizer.com/2007/05/11/the-latest-in-adobe-illustrator/
I really enjoyed doing that and it really shows how to do some cool stuff including animations for Flash, etc.
It took 60 minutes to drive to Adobe (no blogging); 60 minutes to film; it took Ryanne probably 30 minutes to edit and 90 minutes to compress and another few to upload. It also took hours of relationship work to get Adobe to let me interview that team, among others.
Hopefully it helps a few people get excited about graphic design and using tools like this which will lead, maybe, to another thing like JibJab.
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I always tell people it doesn’t matter how much you blog, just do it when you have something to say. When it becomes an obligation I think it stops being a blog and starts being a job. Pay is shitty, if it’s a job.
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I always tell people it doesn’t matter how much you blog, just do it when you have something to say. When it becomes an obligation I think it stops being a blog and starts being a job. Pay is shitty, if it’s a job.
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I’ve seen a share of statements in question form on your blog. Those are the no fact checking posts I am referring to. You do a lot of speculation. I realize a lot of your posts include “UPDATE:”‘s.
I think you clarified it saying that you are not fatigued from blogging. It would be ridiculous to think somebody could be fatigued by writing a couple short 2-3 paragraph articles every other day.
The title “blog fatigue” implies that you are fatigued from blogging so that is where I seemingly erroneously took that from.
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I’ve seen a share of statements in question form on your blog. Those are the no fact checking posts I am referring to. You do a lot of speculation. I realize a lot of your posts include “UPDATE:”‘s.
I think you clarified it saying that you are not fatigued from blogging. It would be ridiculous to think somebody could be fatigued by writing a couple short 2-3 paragraph articles every other day.
The title “blog fatigue” implies that you are fatigued from blogging so that is where I seemingly erroneously took that from.
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Hi Robert,
Oh, blogger, not-a-blogger, what’s the probem? And who’s problem is it, really?
Fact: you are one of the guys who promoted and evangelized blogging, and that hasn’t changed.
It’s really understandable that one gets blogger fatigue. Maybe that has something to do with (others!) mental expectation of you – blogging.
So maybe ‘blogging stress’ is a more appropriate definition? I disagree with Chris. It’s not just the writing, it’s the expectation.
Have a good weekend,
Jojanneke
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Hi Robert,
Oh, blogger, not-a-blogger, what’s the probem? And who’s problem is it, really?
Fact: you are one of the guys who promoted and evangelized blogging, and that hasn’t changed.
It’s really understandable that one gets blogger fatigue. Maybe that has something to do with (others!) mental expectation of you – blogging.
So maybe ‘blogging stress’ is a more appropriate definition? I disagree with Chris. It’s not just the writing, it’s the expectation.
Have a good weekend,
Jojanneke
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Nima: let’s see. I read 633 feeds. EVERY DAY. I do at least one video EVERY DAY. I have hundreds of emails to answer EVERY DAY. I’m Vice President of a startup company and have to work to keep that going. I have tons of speeches to give (in just past two weeks I’ve been to Phoenix, Cancun, Atlanta). I have a wife and family. I have friends that I want to see and have a beer with. And doing a good blog post takes a while to do. Oh, and I have a column with Fast Company now too. Among other things.
But how much of that is just “scan and dump”? I mean it. After a while, are you actually reading and doing any analyzing, or are you just blasting through it, seeing the right keywords, and letting your Google key combos do the work? There’s a difference between keyword scans and really reading all those feeds.
I don’t see any other blogger doing that much travel, speaking gigs, and reading as many feeds as I do. Until you do you have no clue about the process that goes into doing what I do.
Yes, yes Robert. Huge penis. Monstrous. Really. You make a living as a blogger. But I think you’re letting yourself confuse being busy with doing a lot. There’s a difference. And if you want to compare writing cycles, I’ll email you mine sometime, which is in *addition* to a “real” job 😉
Oh, and I want you to go and count how many blog posts of mine have factual errors compared with the number of posts I make. Then I want you to go back and count how many don’t get fixed within five hours of being posted. That number would probably fit on one hand. But, no need to worry about the truth here, right? Got it.
You mean out of all your posts, or just the ones where you’re attempting to quote a “fact”? The percentages change rather a lot depending on how you count things. As well, the fact that you correct quickly doesn’t change the fact that you tend to go off half-cocked far too easily. It’s how you make your bread, but that still doesn’t really fix your accuracy.
Now, on to something of real import…
Some other things going on? My back has been hurting for a long time, and it’s getting harder to sit still to blog and I haven’t been exercising lately, I’ve been traveling too much, and I haven’t been paying enough attention to my friends. So, something in my life has gotta give, especially with a kid on the way.
Dude, I say this in all seriousness…don’t fuck around with an aching back. You let your back get fucked up, it never goes away. I had mine go south because someone decided to stop helping me carry a washer, up the stairs. Took a year to get back to “healed”. Not that it ever fully healed. I twist wrong, and I’m on the floor for an hour in pain that will make you beg for a pipe to the head.
Go *now* and make a doctor’s appointment. And for the love of dog, start exercising. Tell the “blogosphere” and the rest to fuck off for an hour a day, and go exercise, (AFTER the Doc appointment). Not strolling, but WALKING. If you have a pool, that’s a great way to build up strength too. You’ve forgotten how much a baby can strain your back, and the last thing you want is to have to get Maryam or Patrick to hand you the baby, because you can’t pick the wiggly little dear up yourself.
To be blunt, the weight your carrying and your age is going to start causing you problems. You’re not that far off my age, and I just turned 40. You have to, not should, but have to become proactive in your health beyond getting lettuce on your Whopper.
Oh, are you going to be in S.F. during the WWDC?
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Nima: let’s see. I read 633 feeds. EVERY DAY. I do at least one video EVERY DAY. I have hundreds of emails to answer EVERY DAY. I’m Vice President of a startup company and have to work to keep that going. I have tons of speeches to give (in just past two weeks I’ve been to Phoenix, Cancun, Atlanta). I have a wife and family. I have friends that I want to see and have a beer with. And doing a good blog post takes a while to do. Oh, and I have a column with Fast Company now too. Among other things.
But how much of that is just “scan and dump”? I mean it. After a while, are you actually reading and doing any analyzing, or are you just blasting through it, seeing the right keywords, and letting your Google key combos do the work? There’s a difference between keyword scans and really reading all those feeds.
I don’t see any other blogger doing that much travel, speaking gigs, and reading as many feeds as I do. Until you do you have no clue about the process that goes into doing what I do.
Yes, yes Robert. Huge penis. Monstrous. Really. You make a living as a blogger. But I think you’re letting yourself confuse being busy with doing a lot. There’s a difference. And if you want to compare writing cycles, I’ll email you mine sometime, which is in *addition* to a “real” job 😉
Oh, and I want you to go and count how many blog posts of mine have factual errors compared with the number of posts I make. Then I want you to go back and count how many don’t get fixed within five hours of being posted. That number would probably fit on one hand. But, no need to worry about the truth here, right? Got it.
You mean out of all your posts, or just the ones where you’re attempting to quote a “fact”? The percentages change rather a lot depending on how you count things. As well, the fact that you correct quickly doesn’t change the fact that you tend to go off half-cocked far too easily. It’s how you make your bread, but that still doesn’t really fix your accuracy.
Now, on to something of real import…
Some other things going on? My back has been hurting for a long time, and it’s getting harder to sit still to blog and I haven’t been exercising lately, I’ve been traveling too much, and I haven’t been paying enough attention to my friends. So, something in my life has gotta give, especially with a kid on the way.
Dude, I say this in all seriousness…don’t fuck around with an aching back. You let your back get fucked up, it never goes away. I had mine go south because someone decided to stop helping me carry a washer, up the stairs. Took a year to get back to “healed”. Not that it ever fully healed. I twist wrong, and I’m on the floor for an hour in pain that will make you beg for a pipe to the head.
Go *now* and make a doctor’s appointment. And for the love of dog, start exercising. Tell the “blogosphere” and the rest to fuck off for an hour a day, and go exercise, (AFTER the Doc appointment). Not strolling, but WALKING. If you have a pool, that’s a great way to build up strength too. You’ve forgotten how much a baby can strain your back, and the last thing you want is to have to get Maryam or Patrick to hand you the baby, because you can’t pick the wiggly little dear up yourself.
To be blunt, the weight your carrying and your age is going to start causing you problems. You’re not that far off my age, and I just turned 40. You have to, not should, but have to become proactive in your health beyond getting lettuce on your Whopper.
Oh, are you going to be in S.F. during the WWDC?
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I have similar feelings, in that I love to write a good post, but I’m finding it harder to get excited enough to sit down and do it. And it’s not like there’s a shortage of subjects to write about.
My brother and I work together on a number of blogs and we’ve had a similar dialog. He says blogging is simply transferring your thoughts or opinions online in a post. 5 or 10 minutes and you’re done.
To me, it takes hours of reading, gathering facts & figures, and crafting a post. We finally decided that he is blogging and I’m trying to be an online journalist. So I compromise between both with a short, but informative entertaining post.
Yes, email takes a ton of time and effort too. I simply scan for the most important messages and let the rest ride until later. Google Reader is a lifesaver; I can’t imagine browsing for that much information.
But it’s all a balance of your priorities, and good time management. So many topics, so little time.
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I have similar feelings, in that I love to write a good post, but I’m finding it harder to get excited enough to sit down and do it. And it’s not like there’s a shortage of subjects to write about.
My brother and I work together on a number of blogs and we’ve had a similar dialog. He says blogging is simply transferring your thoughts or opinions online in a post. 5 or 10 minutes and you’re done.
To me, it takes hours of reading, gathering facts & figures, and crafting a post. We finally decided that he is blogging and I’m trying to be an online journalist. So I compromise between both with a short, but informative entertaining post.
Yes, email takes a ton of time and effort too. I simply scan for the most important messages and let the rest ride until later. Google Reader is a lifesaver; I can’t imagine browsing for that much information.
But it’s all a balance of your priorities, and good time management. So many topics, so little time.
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I read 633 feeds. EVERY DAY. I do at least one video EVERY DAY. I have hundreds of emails to answer EVERY DAY.
No, you don’t “have” hundreds of emails to answer every day, you choose to do so. Follow the advice of 4 hour work week and drop 90% of them in the trashbin. Also you’re asking for trouble by “reading” 633 feeds every day. Why? What do you gain out of this?
Also I can’t see the allure of twitter. Why do you need to know where someone is / is doing every second of the day? Who cares?
In short: you’re making your own life difficult.
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I read 633 feeds. EVERY DAY. I do at least one video EVERY DAY. I have hundreds of emails to answer EVERY DAY.
No, you don’t “have” hundreds of emails to answer every day, you choose to do so. Follow the advice of 4 hour work week and drop 90% of them in the trashbin. Also you’re asking for trouble by “reading” 633 feeds every day. Why? What do you gain out of this?
Also I can’t see the allure of twitter. Why do you need to know where someone is / is doing every second of the day? Who cares?
In short: you’re making your own life difficult.
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Dude, ditch Twitter.
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@14
“So maybe ‘blogging stress’ is a more appropriate definition? I disagree with Chris. It’s not just the writing, it’s the expectation.”
But doesn’t that go away if you are comfortable in your job?
If Robert is insecure about his short article writing capability, then perhaps he’s in the wrong field?
I certainly don’t expect miracles when I read this blog, and I doubt others do as well.
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@14
“So maybe ‘blogging stress’ is a more appropriate definition? I disagree with Chris. It’s not just the writing, it’s the expectation.”
But doesn’t that go away if you are comfortable in your job?
If Robert is insecure about his short article writing capability, then perhaps he’s in the wrong field?
I certainly don’t expect miracles when I read this blog, and I doubt others do as well.
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Dude, ditch Twitter.
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Ivan: I agree. I’ve been pouring most of my heart into the video show. That requires me to be away from the keyboard. Doing good blogging requires you to be at the keyboard.
Don’t feel bad about ignoring blogging for what is essentially your job.
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Ivan: I agree. I’ve been pouring most of my heart into the video show. That requires me to be away from the keyboard. Doing good blogging requires you to be at the keyboard.
Don’t feel bad about ignoring blogging for what is essentially your job.
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Well, let’s see. When you post on your blog, you usually have meaningful things to requires time to translate thoughts to words. And there’s usually lots of meaningful responses.
On the other hand ‘tweets’ on Twitter require no thought whatsoever. They’re short one-lines that are usually pointless to all your followers/friends. Looking at your recent updates, apparently you think Steve Rubel called you fat…and I’m supposed to care? Twitter is essentially a persistent chatroom viewable to the public at large.
So let’s see – you’ve got an activity that requires more thought and time to produce something meaningful vs. another activity where you can things off the tip of your mind without context or making it meaningful. I know it’s kind of mean, but you being on Twitter probably means better posts for subscribers to your blog, even if they come less often.
Your video shows are part of your job, so I’m not sure why it’s part of the discussion. That argument of being too fatigue due to work can be made for any blogger or techie who’s still a techie at home.
Your link blog on the other hand is just RSS addiction, which I’m also victim to. The real issue at hand, is of course, Twitter vs. Blogging.
As an aside, there was (still is?) a somewhat similar issue when podcasting was just getting off the ground. Many podcasters would put out a few episodes, realize that podcasting takes up a lot of time and slowly stop podcasting.
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Well, let’s see. When you post on your blog, you usually have meaningful things to requires time to translate thoughts to words. And there’s usually lots of meaningful responses.
On the other hand ‘tweets’ on Twitter require no thought whatsoever. They’re short one-lines that are usually pointless to all your followers/friends. Looking at your recent updates, apparently you think Steve Rubel called you fat…and I’m supposed to care? Twitter is essentially a persistent chatroom viewable to the public at large.
So let’s see – you’ve got an activity that requires more thought and time to produce something meaningful vs. another activity where you can things off the tip of your mind without context or making it meaningful. I know it’s kind of mean, but you being on Twitter probably means better posts for subscribers to your blog, even if they come less often.
Your video shows are part of your job, so I’m not sure why it’s part of the discussion. That argument of being too fatigue due to work can be made for any blogger or techie who’s still a techie at home.
Your link blog on the other hand is just RSS addiction, which I’m also victim to. The real issue at hand, is of course, Twitter vs. Blogging.
As an aside, there was (still is?) a somewhat similar issue when podcasting was just getting off the ground. Many podcasters would put out a few episodes, realize that podcasting takes up a lot of time and slowly stop podcasting.
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Relatedly, Jason has decided to take a month off blogging, but will still be posting to Twitter:
http://www.calacanis.com/2007/05/08/taking-a-month-off-from-blogging/
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Relatedly, Jason has decided to take a month off blogging, but will still be posting to Twitter:
http://www.calacanis.com/2007/05/08/taking-a-month-off-from-blogging/
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See this whole “omg, so tired” is why I post when I feel like it, not when other people think I should
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See this whole “omg, so tired” is why I post when I feel like it, not when other people think I should
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My advice
1. figure out what is important (to YOU and your family, not necessarily your readers)
2. do what is important
3. forget the rest. There will always be more to do, and you can’t do it all.
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My advice
1. figure out what is important (to YOU and your family, not necessarily your readers)
2. do what is important
3. forget the rest. There will always be more to do, and you can’t do it all.
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Robert,
I would agree, your blogging changed after Microsoft, but that is the progressive of things. I still look forward to your posts and would miss them if they stopped, but health is more important, family is more important and supporting your family is more important. As Dave said, blog when you have something you want to say. Beyond that, you don’t owe anyone an explanation or an excuse. It is your time to do as you wish, spend it the way you want.
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Robert,
I would agree, your blogging changed after Microsoft, but that is the progressive of things. I still look forward to your posts and would miss them if they stopped, but health is more important, family is more important and supporting your family is more important. As Dave said, blog when you have something you want to say. Beyond that, you don’t owe anyone an explanation or an excuse. It is your time to do as you wish, spend it the way you want.
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“On the other hand there isn’t ANY blogger who is reading the numbers of feeds I am.”
Really? So, according to the latest data, there are approximately 60-70 MILLION blogs in the world. Which would mean there’s close to 60-70 MILLION bloggers. Say, about 20-30% don’t ever post. That leaves us with around 40-50MM bloggers. So, just so I understand: you are saying out of the 40-50MM bloggers in the world, no one reads more feeds than you do? Really? No one? Really? And you know this for a fact? How?
You ever think your narcissism my be contributing to your fatigue? Maybe if you stop thinking you are more important than you really are, it might relieve some of your self-induced pressure.
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“On the other hand there isn’t ANY blogger who is reading the numbers of feeds I am.”
Really? So, according to the latest data, there are approximately 60-70 MILLION blogs in the world. Which would mean there’s close to 60-70 MILLION bloggers. Say, about 20-30% don’t ever post. That leaves us with around 40-50MM bloggers. So, just so I understand: you are saying out of the 40-50MM bloggers in the world, no one reads more feeds than you do? Really? No one? Really? And you know this for a fact? How?
You ever think your narcissism my be contributing to your fatigue? Maybe if you stop thinking you are more important than you really are, it might relieve some of your self-induced pressure.
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They don’t know who Kenny Wayne Shepard is? Yeesh.
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They don’t know who Kenny Wayne Shepard is? Yeesh.
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LayZ: I should have qualified it. No one reads more feeds on Google Reader than I do. How do I know that? The Google Reader team told me so. So did Matt Cutts.
I read every post. I don’t just look at keywords. If you read my link blog and compared that to what I actually read you’d see just how impossible that would be to do just by looking at headlines or just by reading for keywords. Every post is hand picked for a reason.
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LayZ: I should have qualified it. No one reads more feeds on Google Reader than I do. How do I know that? The Google Reader team told me so. So did Matt Cutts.
I read every post. I don’t just look at keywords. If you read my link blog and compared that to what I actually read you’d see just how impossible that would be to do just by looking at headlines or just by reading for keywords. Every post is hand picked for a reason.
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Based on your fairly regular complaints on the subject I’d say what you are getting is e-mail fatigue.
As already mentioned , it doesn’t take that long to do a few posts a day on what interests you. What takes so long is all the other stuff you have to do to come up with what those two or three posts are going to be.
Solution: You are a Vice President for gosh sake. I’ve been a Vice President a couple of times too and know that doesn’t always mean you get actual support staff to go with that title, however, given the business you are in, and the rather direct relationship between this blog and your company (formal or not) I’d say they could spring for someone to help you at least filter your e-mail into things that need rapid attention and things that could wait for a while (or maybe forever). Part of that might also be to have a separate e-mail address for certain things, notes from family members, bills, etc., that you wouldn’t want to share with a third party, but, I’m guess you have already taken care of that, if not you should (as part of keeping private life in front of other things if nothing else).
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Based on your fairly regular complaints on the subject I’d say what you are getting is e-mail fatigue.
As already mentioned , it doesn’t take that long to do a few posts a day on what interests you. What takes so long is all the other stuff you have to do to come up with what those two or three posts are going to be.
Solution: You are a Vice President for gosh sake. I’ve been a Vice President a couple of times too and know that doesn’t always mean you get actual support staff to go with that title, however, given the business you are in, and the rather direct relationship between this blog and your company (formal or not) I’d say they could spring for someone to help you at least filter your e-mail into things that need rapid attention and things that could wait for a while (or maybe forever). Part of that might also be to have a separate e-mail address for certain things, notes from family members, bills, etc., that you wouldn’t want to share with a third party, but, I’m guess you have already taken care of that, if not you should (as part of keeping private life in front of other things if nothing else).
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“ And doing a good blog post takes a while to do. ”
This is what I don’t understand. Why does it take you a while to do one of your posts? You opine about something you already have in your head, which may or may not have a couple of links involved. You aren’t trying to come up with “funny” material or a webcomic (ahem…) so I don’t see the difficulty threshold.
I’m saying your blog isn’t great, because I wouldn’t be reading it if it wasn’t, but what’s great about it is the breadth of material and your own personal opinion (and the occasional insanity).
Again, maybe I’m missing something. (If it’s not too much trouble) why don’t you tell us what goes into a typical day of blog posts for you. A little, “this is how I do it” post. That would be interesting and we all could get a sense of what you’re talking about.
Oh, and I don’t see what audience size has to do with whether or not you get tired of blogging. I mean, yeah, my audience is like 20 people, but a post is a post. I put the same amount of work into each thing I do whether I get 20 hits or 25 hits, ya know.
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“ And doing a good blog post takes a while to do. ”
This is what I don’t understand. Why does it take you a while to do one of your posts? You opine about something you already have in your head, which may or may not have a couple of links involved. You aren’t trying to come up with “funny” material or a webcomic (ahem…) so I don’t see the difficulty threshold.
I’m saying your blog isn’t great, because I wouldn’t be reading it if it wasn’t, but what’s great about it is the breadth of material and your own personal opinion (and the occasional insanity).
Again, maybe I’m missing something. (If it’s not too much trouble) why don’t you tell us what goes into a typical day of blog posts for you. A little, “this is how I do it” post. That would be interesting and we all could get a sense of what you’re talking about.
Oh, and I don’t see what audience size has to do with whether or not you get tired of blogging. I mean, yeah, my audience is like 20 people, but a post is a post. I put the same amount of work into each thing I do whether I get 20 hits or 25 hits, ya know.
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Crap, I made a typo. It’s supposed to say “I’m NOT saying your blog isn’t great….” Sorry. 😦
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Crap, I made a typo. It’s supposed to say “I’m NOT saying your blog isn’t great….” Sorry. 😦
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Robert, hate to add to your reading but this may help explain some of your fatigue…
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0507/176.html
CA used to have a “no internal email” day a week – they found it forced employees to walk around and talk to each other more…may be you and other bloggers should adopt a blog-free, Twitter free block of time a week…heck, readers could use that time off too…
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Robert, hate to add to your reading but this may help explain some of your fatigue…
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0507/176.html
CA used to have a “no internal email” day a week – they found it forced employees to walk around and talk to each other more…may be you and other bloggers should adopt a blog-free, Twitter free block of time a week…heck, readers could use that time off too…
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I try to unplug for at least one weekend day a month. No twitter, no blogs, no email, nothing.
I had to turn Twitter texts off on my cellphone because they were getting way too distracting.
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I try to unplug for at least one weekend day a month. No twitter, no blogs, no email, nothing.
I had to turn Twitter texts off on my cellphone because they were getting way too distracting.
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May be you blog a lot, but that’s why I like your blog. I visit you blog several times a day because I know every time I’ll find something new. Keep up the good work, but give yourself a break from time to time. What I mean by that: DON’T EVEN ALLOW YOURSELF TO LOOK AT A COMPUTER during that time to rest.
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May be you blog a lot, but that’s why I like your blog. I visit you blog several times a day because I know every time I’ll find something new. Keep up the good work, but give yourself a break from time to time. What I mean by that: DON’T EVEN ALLOW YOURSELF TO LOOK AT A COMPUTER during that time to rest.
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Your video show is great…
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Your video show is great…
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Well why not quit “twittering”. Or spend less time online. or quit blogging.
Nobody is FORCING you to do this stuff, so getting stressed about it is pretty easy to solve.
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Well why not quit “twittering”. Or spend less time online. or quit blogging.
Nobody is FORCING you to do this stuff, so getting stressed about it is pretty easy to solve.
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No one reads more feeds on Google Reader than I do. How do I know that? The Google Reader team told me so. So did Matt Cutts.
Proceed directly to the Restaurant at the End of the Blogosphere for your cookie.
In all honesty, not sure what the point of this post was, as your running commentary in the comments area suggests that you already have All the Answers, and apparently wanted to yank it out (see JCWs initial comment) and swing it around a bit. Yee ha. 633 feeds. You go.
Assuming I am graced with the parented Scoble barrage, no, I don’t read 633 feeds, and I have zero intention of doing so. And no, I don’t agree that cramming as many feeds down your gullet is akin to “conversing” any more than it is to “listening”. And I’m only here on this post because I took the bait over at Kent Newsome’s site. Shame on me, I know.
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No one reads more feeds on Google Reader than I do. How do I know that? The Google Reader team told me so. So did Matt Cutts.
Proceed directly to the Restaurant at the End of the Blogosphere for your cookie.
In all honesty, not sure what the point of this post was, as your running commentary in the comments area suggests that you already have All the Answers, and apparently wanted to yank it out (see JCWs initial comment) and swing it around a bit. Yee ha. 633 feeds. You go.
Assuming I am graced with the parented Scoble barrage, no, I don’t read 633 feeds, and I have zero intention of doing so. And no, I don’t agree that cramming as many feeds down your gullet is akin to “conversing” any more than it is to “listening”. And I’m only here on this post because I took the bait over at Kent Newsome’s site. Shame on me, I know.
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Hello Robert,
Since your this post, I have observed your blogging got more interesting. The subject matter is again filled with the fun. Your rank is not an issue but instead of between 5-9 it is between 2-5. Well, we all need someone to tell us what is going on.
Many are saying that you do not have read this many blog and do not have to stay in front of computer. With all due respect, I feel that you are doing all this so we are not doing it. As you are reading all this blogs, I do not read them.
I was subscribed to hundreds of blogs. When I see that blog in your shared items I unsubscribe to them thinking, now you will tell me what is good there. I got my life back. Thanks to you.
You are blogging and reading all the feed of internet, we do not have to read them all. You save great amount of time for others.
Thanks,
Pinal
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Hello Robert,
Since your this post, I have observed your blogging got more interesting. The subject matter is again filled with the fun. Your rank is not an issue but instead of between 5-9 it is between 2-5. Well, we all need someone to tell us what is going on.
Many are saying that you do not have read this many blog and do not have to stay in front of computer. With all due respect, I feel that you are doing all this so we are not doing it. As you are reading all this blogs, I do not read them.
I was subscribed to hundreds of blogs. When I see that blog in your shared items I unsubscribe to them thinking, now you will tell me what is good there. I got my life back. Thanks to you.
You are blogging and reading all the feed of internet, we do not have to read them all. You save great amount of time for others.
Thanks,
Pinal
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