Hugh MacLeod wrote a blog post called "How To Be Creative" that's been downloaded more than a million times!
Read it, or if you are pressed for time, he provides a summary:
If I had to condense the entire work into a single line, it would read something like, "Work Hard. Keep at it. Live simply and quietly. Remain humble. Stay positive. Be nice. Be polite."
gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"
Tad Chef gives 12 reasons to distrust Google.
Do you use Google? Do you think they are nice and friendly? Do you assume that what is good for Google is good for humanity as a whole? I don’t. Here is why: The top 12 reasons to distrust Google.
- Google supports and implements censorship measures in nondemocratic countries like China
- Google search is almost a monopoly in some countries, it already is one in others (in Germany more than 90% market share)
- ...
Top 12 Reasons to Distrust Google | Collective Thoughts
I get to read his post because, based on my reading list, Google recommends his feed! That's the one reason why I like Google. They know best how to make the technology work for you.
Tad's reasons are worth thinking about. And you should heed his advice if you are the sort who believes the newspapers, or the UN Secretary General, or the Pope.
But for those who have a healthy distrust of everything, Google is the least untrustworthy of all authoritative sources.
And a whole lot more useful too!
It was built with the idea that good time would last forever.
It was in the 70's that I saw my first movie at Chanakya: Lost in the Desert--the story of a small boy surviving in the desert after a plane crash. It's not a movie often remembered today, but I can still recall the vivid grains of sand projected on the finest screens of its time in New Delhi.
Chanakya was an experience unlike any other. In its early days, the movies were mostly Hollywood, though a few years late; and the crowd, expatriates and the rich that lived around the area. The quietness of the surroundings, the bold architectural style of the theatre building and when you entered inside, the plush carpet--everything in Chanakya had character. For India passing through difficult times, it was a piece of the future that we hoped to create.
As a schoolboy I heard of the technical challenges in designing the "structure and the acoustics" (yes, the very words of the storyteller), with assistance from the nearby IIT. Don't know how much of that story was true, but it made us want to grow up and do big things.
India has since arrived. And so have the new generation of malls and multiplexes around Delhi, one of them being planned for the hallowed ground where Chanakya stands today.
The city of Delhi has been rebuilt at least 6 times in last 2000 years. So one structure being razed to make way for another, is perhaps par for this course.
Nevertheless, the memory of Chanakya shall remain in the hearts of men and women of Delhi, who can associate events in their lives with movie posters that adorned its walls at the same time.
Google has added your friends shared items right inside the Google Reader. See the link highlighted below:
It is a great way to share the feed with chat friends on Google Talk, EXCEPT:
It appears that your blocked contacts would also see your shared feed when they begin to use Google Reader. While the shared feed is public, you may not want it to appear automatically in blocked contacts' accounts.
If so, you have to delete their contact information from your address book!
My shared items from Google Reader
There is a technique to making your reader follow the words effortlessly.
If they read, they also comment, subscribe or link. After that what you've learnt in SEO school may prove useful.
Getting them to read is the key. And it works like this:
Google would always find you and send a few visitors. But visitors don't automatically become readers. You've to entice them to read. If they read, they feel a little compulsion to act. For instance, some of them might give you a link.
But it's not for us to worry about links and how they convert to PageRank. It's for Google to worry about their technology and to send visitors to pages that people read. We can trust them to keep tweaking their methods and find content that people like to read.
Read Jonathan Morrow for content, and you'd learn something useful. But study his method to entice you to read on, and you've cracked the code!
Try Jon's latest post on Copyblogger. You may want to think how you'd treat this subject before reading the piece.
Your writer's muse is like a puppy. It needs care and discipline and if you treat it well it will be your best friend for many years to come.
read more | digg Jon's story
