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1 year ago
in Line Length on tychoishFor no good reason, months later, I'm curious what you ended up deciding about the line breaks. I would probably go for whatever the width of my usual term window is, I think 80 characters... I've often thought about keeping my writing projects in subversion, but have never made the leap. Is it working out for you?
2 years ago
in Blogher 06: Culture, Crowds and Celebrity on odd time signatures
I agree with you and am not sure what to do about it other than trying hard to encourage people not to be cliquish, and to go a little outside their comfort zone talking to people they don't know.
The thing I am finding out is that when a lot of people pay attention to you or read you and then want to talk to you, it is lovely yet exhausting. And it can feel like a weight of expectation. People know that is true when they walk up to a person who is getting a lot of attention, i.e. fame within a particular scene, and that's part of what makes them feel shy or tongue-tied . Book authors deal with it by doing lots and lots of small readings and book-signings. It gives structure to that interaction. I see why, and how it is practical, and yet it cuts off the "celebrity" from being open to new relationships and serendipity.
One way to defuse that is to value the people you know whose blogs or writing is just emerging. What is more productive and intimate... a commenty-bloggity relationship where your blogs are deeply intertextual, between 5 people who all pay attention to each other, or your comments on a 'celebrity" site? In social network terms: people tend to over-value a link to or from a celebrity - a node that is linked to 1000 other notes. er, I forget the actual terms for this but something like "eigenvectors". However, the most "valuable" networks are small and dense clusters with heavy activity. So, make your own woolfcampy type of thing and you will all celebrate the value of your local cluster. Decentralize fame. Importance is not popularity - it is sustained, interlinked attention.
That said, I will still never forget that one 5 minute conversation I had with Ursula Le Guin where she told me how she stayed up all night before Wiscon 20, making a Bajoran earring to wear. So I understand the gratification of the fannish moment. And I also still tell little stories to myself about how someday we'll hang out around the kitchen table together, unable to remember that time when we weren't Best Friends... That's the kind of thought train that if you have it, must gently be pushed away so that you are freed to do the wonderful things that YOU will do.
The thing I am finding out is that when a lot of people pay attention to you or read you and then want to talk to you, it is lovely yet exhausting. And it can feel like a weight of expectation. People know that is true when they walk up to a person who is getting a lot of attention, i.e. fame within a particular scene, and that's part of what makes them feel shy or tongue-tied . Book authors deal with it by doing lots and lots of small readings and book-signings. It gives structure to that interaction. I see why, and how it is practical, and yet it cuts off the "celebrity" from being open to new relationships and serendipity.
One way to defuse that is to value the people you know whose blogs or writing is just emerging. What is more productive and intimate... a commenty-bloggity relationship where your blogs are deeply intertextual, between 5 people who all pay attention to each other, or your comments on a 'celebrity" site? In social network terms: people tend to over-value a link to or from a celebrity - a node that is linked to 1000 other notes. er, I forget the actual terms for this but something like "eigenvectors". However, the most "valuable" networks are small and dense clusters with heavy activity. So, make your own woolfcampy type of thing and you will all celebrate the value of your local cluster. Decentralize fame. Importance is not popularity - it is sustained, interlinked attention.
That said, I will still never forget that one 5 minute conversation I had with Ursula Le Guin where she told me how she stayed up all night before Wiscon 20, making a Bajoran earring to wear. So I understand the gratification of the fannish moment. And I also still tell little stories to myself about how someday we'll hang out around the kitchen table together, unable to remember that time when we weren't Best Friends... That's the kind of thought train that if you have it, must gently be pushed away so that you are freed to do the wonderful things that YOU will do.
3 years ago
in SXSW: this conference is the bomb! on goodCRIMETHINK
Hey Baratunde, I loved your stories and comedy at the Frey Cafe! Both the name story and the one about your mom really stick in my head. Thanks!
3 years ago
in Three Thoughts on Woolfcamp on More Like This Web Log
We totally should have done the quick index-card mashup for Woolfcamp! Next time we'll come up with some quick useful exercises like that. And I will tap Chris for ideas on that level - that one sounds so perfect.
About the evangelizing: quickstart things are necessary, cookbook style. With some kind of intro that's short, that says, you have to be comfortable not understanding half of this; you have to experiment before understanding what will happen or what all the words mean, and that's okay to do.
so, like "10 nifty command line recipes to play with" and it has to fit on one or two pages.
I love the Perl Cookbooks.
Or like, 5 unix command line things to try. and totally make wget one of them. i learned how to mess with unix from a really bad book that just listed all the commands with very short-version man page entries. And so i'd just type the command and read the man page, and poke around. (thank you, temp job.) Think how much easier it would have been with a cookbook! Learning and gaining confidence by trying a simple thing that works, and then varying its parameters.
About the evangelizing: quickstart things are necessary, cookbook style. With some kind of intro that's short, that says, you have to be comfortable not understanding half of this; you have to experiment before understanding what will happen or what all the words mean, and that's okay to do.
so, like "10 nifty command line recipes to play with" and it has to fit on one or two pages.
I love the Perl Cookbooks.
Or like, 5 unix command line things to try. and totally make wget one of them. i learned how to mess with unix from a really bad book that just listed all the commands with very short-version man page entries. And so i'd just type the command and read the man page, and poke around. (thank you, temp job.) Think how much easier it would have been with a cookbook! Learning and gaining confidence by trying a simple thing that works, and then varying its parameters.
