arielseidman:

It’s obvious that at this point many social networks are a fantasy representation of who we really are.

You’ll have to click through to see how he ties Pearl Jam into that statement…

The Great Discontent: Adam Lisagor

Adam Lisagor on what makes Vine great:

Vine has introduced the concept of rudimentary in-camera editing to elicit emotional response. It’s awesome because without Vine, most people are not going to shoot two clips at one time and put them together, even though there are thousands of apps in the app store that will let them do that. Going back to the kids experimenting with video cameras, that’s how most of us learned to tell stories, sequentially in order. Essentially, that’s what Vine is. People are discovering it to do all kinds of new tricks.

With the development of the press, it has now come to pass that so soon as any event, owing to casual circumstances, receives an especially prominent significance, immediately the organs of the press announce this significance. As soon as the press has brought forward the significance of the event, the public devotes more and more attention to it. The attention of the public prompts the press to examine the event with greater attention and in greater detail. The interest of the public further increases, and the organs of the press, competing with one another, satisfy the public demand. The public is still more interested; the press attributes yet more significance to the event. So that the importance of the event, continually growing, like a lump of snow, receives an appreciation utterly inappropriate to its real significance, and this appreciation, often exaggerated to insanity, is retained so long as the conception of life of the leaders of the press and of the public remains the same.

Leo Tolstoy, Tolstoy on Shakespeare

Book update #1

As I mentioned before, I’ll increasingly use this site as an outlet for talking about the Product Management book I’m writing. Fair warning.

Yesterday, 13 pages into the book, was the first time I got really really scared about the project. Up to that point, writing was difficult but doable. I was able to focus on a topic, struggle through it, and get a first draft onto the page.

But yesterday, while focusing on why companies need Product Management, I just couldn’t find the words. The ideas are in my head, but I couldn’t find a way to turn those ideas into words, and convince the words to stick to the page.

I Skyped my editor to let him know that I’m freaking out. After sending me a virtual beer, he gave me some great advice: take a break, play with your kids, forget about it for a while. Which I did.

Now, in the light of a new morning, I actually feel relieved. I’ve been waiting to hit writer’s block, and couldn’t understand why it wasn’t coming. It’s like that fear of falling off your bike for the first time while you’re learning. You end up focusing so much on the fear that it takes most of the enjoyment out of what you’re doing. So now that I’ve fallen off the bike for the first time, I can relax. It happened. Writing is hard. Now I can stop worrying and just get on with it.

Well, until the next time I fall off, of course. I don’t know what I’ll do if it happens while my editor is not online, but I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.

Related - Skype really needs an emoticon for the “freaking out” emotion. Something like this:

Freaking Out