Here are a couple of quick book reviews, based on stuff that I’ve received from the kind people at O’Reilly Media:

Hackers:  Heroes of the Computer Revolution – 25th Anniversary edition by Steven Levy

This is a great read.  I read the original edition of this book a number of years ago.  It’s about the rise of the hacker movement and the open source concept, back when open source meant keeping printouts of programming code in unlocked drawers for other amateur programmers to use.  This started back in the day when you had to enter programs by punch card, flipping switches or, rarely, typing the code in machine language or assembler using an actual keyboard.  Those days seem like a distant memory now.

This is not a book about programming techniques.  It’s a book about people who loved the idea of democratizing the use of computers, their quirky personalities and how the personal computer eventually came to life.  It also talks about entrepreneurship, including the good and the bad.  Still relevant today and a recommended read.  Rating 8/10  Affiliate link: Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution – 25th Anniversary Edition

Create Stunning HTML Email That Just Works by Matthew Patterson

I am not a programmer, although I do have some knowledge of how HTML works, so some of the stuff in this book goes over my head.  Basically, it’s about creating E-Mails using HTML techniques that make them look attractive.  So, honestly, I don’t know how well these techniques work.  They aren’t beginners techniques.  I will say, however, that this book is well organized and well written so it looks good.  I’m not including an affiliate link because I’m out of my depth here but it looks like it could be a good resource if you’re into this sort of thing.  Here’s a non-affiliate link to the book, since I’m not so knowledgeable about this stuff – it could still turn out to be quite good.

Until next time!

Most Commented Posts

• Social media blog post ideas for desperate people
• How do you define social media?
• A page full of thank yous for some great people
• The Reasons Why Other People Ignore You
• The Uncanny Evolving Social Media Blog List!

Hi.  Long time no talk.  I’ve been pretty busy with Thoughtwrestling and a couple of other projects.  I am working on some new posts for Broadcasting Brain, but they’re taking awhile to sort through.

However, I wanted to make you aware of some free consulting time that I’m giving away.  You can find more details over at Thoughtwrestling.

Thanks!

Most Commented Posts

• Social media blog post ideas for desperate people
• How do you define social media?
• A page full of thank yous for some great people
• The Reasons Why Other People Ignore You
• The Uncanny Evolving Social Media Blog List!

I made it through the Read It All challenge.

Sort of.  It’s more like I “ran” a marathon but got a ride on a golf cart for at least 6 of the 26 miles.

I focused pretty exclusively on the feeds that I consume within Google Reader.  I did not follow my Google Buzz items with the same diligence.

I started the week at around 300 subscriptions.  I’m currently at 284 (except that I have no idea how Google Reader calculates that number and I expect it may be highly inflated).  I suspect most of those blogs are infrequently published at best.

Here are a few observations:

1. Actually going through all of my feeds and every item was painful, at least at first.  I’d built up a habit of looking at the number of unread items and just marking them all as Read (although I would sometimes glance at the headlines before doing the mass Read).
2. If a blog didn’t publish a full feed and I only saw a partial feed in Google Reader, I just read the partial feed information.  If I found it interesting, I clicked on to the actual blog.  That didn’t happen very often.
3. This exercise is forcing me to acknowledge something that I’ve known for awhile, but refused to admit to myself:  I don’t get a lot of value out of Google Shared items.  I don’t like the way that the same item appears in Shared items multiple times when different people share it and/or leave comments on the Shared item.  I also get a lot of tech news items in there which really don’t interest me these days.  So I’m probably going to stop following some people’s Shared items (alas).
4. I might have discovered a few interesting tidbits through all of this reading, but not that many.  Sadly.
5. Then there’s the problem of the Starred Items in Google Reader, the ones that you mark but never seem to get back to because it seems like too much work to do it…  fortunately I didn’t add many new Starred items this week.  I’m considering nuking them all, if I can.

After all this, I’m going to:

• Cut back on my feeds even more.
• Stop following some people’s Google Shared items.
• Try to make more of an effort to read the stuff in Google Reader.
• Force myself to go through all of my Starred items and finally deal with them one way or another.

Thanks to Justin and Ian for coming up with this idea.  It was worthwhile, even if it wasn’t very fun at times.

Most Commented Posts

• Social media blog post ideas for desperate people
• How do you define social media?
• A page full of thank yous for some great people
• The Reasons Why Other People Ignore You
• The Uncanny Evolving Social Media Blog List!

This morning, as I coax my dulled brain to active duty after a unsatisfying night’s sleep, I’m wondering about drinking glasses.

I have a contradictory relationship to drinking glasses.  For one thing, I tend to use more than I should during the day.  There are times that I could easily get by with a single glass, but I often don’t.  I’m convinced that this behavior is informed by a combination of laziness and cognitive overload.  Dealing with the latter first, I say cognitive overload because, like many of us, I tend to be trying to think about too many things at once.

I don’t know exactly where I fall on the scale of being able to juggle between 5 – 9 thoughts simultaneously.  However, I have no trouble of finding at least nine things to ponder at any given time.  This facilitates the ability to forget what I’ve been doing and, more importantly, what I was doing and where I was doing it.  Thus, orphaned, partially empty glasses of water occasionally wind up in unexpected places like bathrooms, bookshelves and the occasional closet.  (Remind me to tell you about the time I found orange juice in the cupboard with the glasses – otherwise, I’ll forget.  I’m blaming this one on cognitive overload, where my brain decides, somewhat randomly, to drop thoughts much like Sawyer jumping out of the helicopter so his fellow LOST castaways could make it safely to the freighter.  Well, not actually because a) they saw him jump and b) the freighter blew up anyway.  Maybe it’s more like dropping books when you were carrying too many in the first place.  Yes, let’s go with that.)  At any rate, trying to remember too much at once leads us to forget things – fun paradox.  Which will be my defense in this case.

Laziness, meaning the lack of desire to reuse a glass when it’s so close to approaching empty status that one might as well consider it to be empty – another classic case of too small to measure being too small to matter.  And yet…  for some strange reason it seems like more work to refill an old glass than to reach up and get a new one.

Or does it?

The real reason that we (um, I) don’t want to reuse an old glass is that it somehow seems dirty and less pure that when we filled it in its clean state.  To say that this is ridiculous is… ridiculous.  I mean, it is ridiculous.  Dirty?  Pshaw, it’s only as dirty as you are.

Here’s the other ridiculous thing:  I don’t mind reusing a dirty glass if it’s had a different liquid, like the old milk-to-water switcheroo, which encourages frequent looks of disgust in my household.

Hey, don’t judge me, man – I do rinse it out.

Mostly.

Whatever it is, I blame the modern dishwashing machine, which gives the illusion of making it just as easy to clean multiple things at once instead of a mere few, just because you’re not the one doing the work.  Except for the loading of the dishwasher.  Which kind of negates the whole point.  But illusion rules.

N.B. Apologies to the late David Foster Wallace, whose writings I’m starting to work my way through.  But man, I can’t write sentences like he does, ones that take a complete cigarette to read (or so I guess).

Other posts that you might enjoy reading:

• When a river stops running
• Stuck on replay
• Important observations from sorting kids toys
• Developments on the home front part 1
• Just one thought for today

I’ve been trying like the dickens to be faithful to #readitall (see my previous post for some details) but man, it’s tough.

There have been some times when, if the blog doesn’t post a full text RSS feed, I’ve just looked at the summary and said, “OK, that’s enough for me.”

I probably broke the rules a bit, but I’ve deleted one feed from my reader.  As it turns out, it:

a)  tends to duplicate entries (it’s a feed from one of the Alltop groups)

b)  contains some links to premium content that I can’t read anyway

c)  contains some feeds that I subscribe to elsewhere

So what’s the point of continuing on with that one?

One thing that I’ve noticed, at least more clearly, is that Google Reader Shared Items actually makes up a huge portion of the content I see in Google Reader.  Read It All is forcing me to pay much closer attention Shared Items than I have in the past.  I’m certainly getting a much better handle on what I’m really interested in reader.  It also highlights one thing about Google Reader Shared Items which has always annoyed me:  if multiple people Share the same item, it appears as separate entries instead of aggregating everything together.  I can sort of see why it works that way, but it’s a bit annoying to me to encounter the same story more than once, especially if it’s just a Share with no additional comments.

I’d say this is a worthwhile experience overall and I’ll definitely be making some changes to my content consumption habits after this (if not sooner).

Most Commented Posts

• Social media blog post ideas for desperate people
• How do you define social media?
• A page full of thank yous for some great people
• The Reasons Why Other People Ignore You
• The Uncanny Evolving Social Media Blog List!

So I know of these two crazy young guys:  IanMRountree and Justin Kownacki.  They have this vision for a week long project called #readitall.

They describe this challenge in two separate posts, but here’s the gist of the challenge:  you have to read everything you subscribe to:  blogs, magazines, etc.

This is kind of a daunting thought, considering how many blogs that I subscribe to and how often some of them publish material.  And it brings forward a good point:  there’s an awful lot of it that I don’t read regularly.

So I’m going to make the effort this week and see what I discover.

Are you in?

Most Commented Posts

• Social media blog post ideas for desperate people
• How do you define social media?
• A page full of thank yous for some great people
• The Reasons Why Other People Ignore You
• The Uncanny Evolving Social Media Blog List!

Colin Marshall has worked in both public and commercial radio, both musical and verbal, for years.  His weekly radio interview show/podcast, The Marketplace of Ideas, specializes in interviews of fascinating guests from many walks of life.  In his own words, “The Marketplace of Ideas is a radio show and podcast about books, culture, commerce and fascinating concepts.”

I recently discovered the Marketplace of Ideas podcast and it’s now a mainstay on my iPod.

Colin recently took some time to answer some questions for us as a part of the Thoughts From series.  Have a read!

In one paragraph or less how would you describe The Marketplace of Ideas?

The official “slogan” calls it a public radio program about “books, commerce, culture and fascinating concepts.” You’ll notice that’s a pretty open mandate. After some discussions I’ve been having lately, I’ve come to think of it more as a show about ideas and the people behind them. In purer terms, it’s a weekly broadcast and podcast featuring an in-depth 55-minute-ish interview with some sort of creator: writer, filmmaker, musician, artist, broadcaster, blogger, what have you.

How did The Marketplace of Ideas get started?

I got hooked on watching Charlie Rose’s interviews in high school, but dropped television entirely when I got to college. One winter, I found myself briefly living in some internetless house in the middle of nowhere, but my room did have a TV. I flipped it on and caught Charlie’s interview with Brian Grazer. Immediately re-absorbed, I suddenly knew, on a visceral level, that I could and should interview, do it in the same long form, and do it with the same flavor of aesthetic minimalism.

Happening upon Jesse Thorn’s public radio program and podcast The Sound of Young America about a year later, I assumed that I, too, could have my interview program with only a reasonable level of hassle. I bought some space from the same hosting service Jesse used, re-applied for a time slot on a local public radio station I used to spin music on, and hit a few of my favorite bloggers up for their time and conversational acumen. This got the train out of the station, and my production M.O. has remained just about the same since.

How do you select the various individuals that you’ll be interviewing?

It’s a mix of those who have recently done something I find interesting, those I find interesting and have been keeping my eye on, and those who have been out-of-the-blue recommended to me. The majority of the time, a book, film or other production catches my eye and I track down its creator. The rest of the time, someone drops a certain person’s name (or I hear that name often enough, fro a variety or sources) and I’m moved to see if they have something out to promote.

Does any interview material wind up on the “cutting room floor” i.e. are there any unused bits that don’t appear in your interviews?

Nah. If I were to start cutting, I’d run the risk of undermining what I consider to be the show’s very purpose: serving up long-form interviews with the flow of actual, real-life conversations. I do cut out “umm”s if they’re numerous enough to become distracting, and of course I smooth out the most serious stumbles or technical glitches. But as far as real content, it’s all in there.

As a Toastmaster, one thing I’ve been taught is to eliminate “crutch words” from my public speaking:the aahs, the ums, and so on. One thing I’ve noticed with a number of radio personalities is that there are occasionally some prominent “crutch words”, as well as pauses, used in some of the interviews and some of the other on-air segments. I’ve often wondered if those are done on purpose as part of a vocal style. Can you confirm if this is the case and why on air personalities would use these “crutch words” in recorded audio segments?

I can confirm that the guys I’ve worked with in various radio jobs have talked about “crutch words” and how they all had to get over their reliance on them. I suppose we do all have tics. I don’t use very many “umm”s, etc., on the radio, but then again, I don’t use them much in real life, either.

The only crutch of mine that I can readily point to is how I start so many questions with the word “now,” or by verblessly invoking “the idea of x” or “the notion of y.” These seem pretty harmless to me, but I’d rather I didn’t cause them to lose what meaning they still have by repetition. I think they develop like a hitch in one’s otherwise serviceable golf swing: you could iron it out, but it’s basically “worked” for so long as-is that the ironing gets de-prioritized.

Looking at your international competition for a moment, are there any particular PRI, NPR, BBC, ABC, CBC, etc. radio shows or podcasts that you particularly enjoy? If so, can you elaborate on what makes those programs special to you?

Jesse Thorn’s aforementioned The Sound of Young America, distributed by PRI, should get first billing here. Jesse’s interviews have the rhythm, range and casual feel of the best non-mediated conversations. I routinely give him a hard time about how they’re too short, but he also gets a hard time on the other side from program directors who think they’re too long. Between a rock and a hard place, that man is.

BBC Radio 4′s In Our Time, hosted by the House of Lords’ one and only Melvyn Bragg, has been one of my very favorite programs since it began podcasting. Brag leads a weekly discussion of three experts, usually all academics, about a different unfailingly interesting subject each time: Edmund Burke, the vacuum of space, Kierkegaard, pastoral literature, Roman Britain. I don’t know why the show isn’t better known, since it’s one of the best things you can listen to.

Entitled Opinions (About Life and Literature), which airs on Stanford’s station KZSU, is something of a cross between the two programs above: super-fascinating topics — Proust, mimetic desire, 1910, Borges, the inflationary universe — covered in one-on-one conversations. The host, a professor of Italian literature names Robert Harrison (whom I actually interviewed on MOI last year), has the ideal voice and personality for this sort of forum.

What’s the best part of interviewing people on the radio?

Getting to connect with people I admire and converse directly with them for an hour a week is a rare privilege indeed. This answer may seems obvious, so I’ll specify that the best part of that is the challenge of asking these luminaries questions that will surprise them, that will make them consider their own works or lives from a newish angle. From the sound of it, they’re often as appreciative of this as I am. (It’s shockingly common how often, after we’re done recording, a guest will express surprise: “You actually read my book!”)

Are there any parts of interviewing which aren’t so much fun?

Oh, the buildup to the conversation itself, when I go over my own insecurities about whether I’ve done enough research and preparation. This always happens, since there’s an infinite amount of background to go into: you read the guest’s books, then the books that influenced those books, then the guest’s previous interviews, then everything mentioned in those interviews, and so on.

The fears are always totally unfounded, since I gather by now that most radio interviewers do their preparation, if they do any, with half of the book’s press release and whatever they’ve gleaned from the back of sugar packets. The standard excuse for this is that it’s really hard to familiarize yourself with all the relevant source material if you’re interviewing on a daily basis, but I’d say that indicates a flaw in the basis of your project — i.e., “interviewing” so many people — not in my expectations.

What would you do if you lost your ability to speak?

I suppose I’m well placed if fate were to pull an Ebert on me, since broadcasting is only one of my four primary pursuits. Sans voice, I could still make movies, could still work with sound art, could still write. (Certainly, loss of voice didn’t slow down Ebert’s pen; in fact, it seems to have sped way up, presumably through the miracle of overcompensation.) I’d double down on all that and probably be fine.

Any final thoughts for our readers?

When you make your own thing, try not to neglect building some promotional skills. I feel as if I’ve somehow “forgotten” to promote MOI, and now I’m sort of scratching my head about how to take it to the next level of listenership. But at least I know I’m making a product I genuinely believe is good. There are broadcasters with millions of listeners who can’t say the same.

Other posts that you might enjoy reading:

• Time capsule – one year ago with Chris Brogan
• Social Blend co-host SilentJay74 in his own words
• Catch the brainwaves of Mathew Ingram
• Catch the brainwaves of Jon Dyer
• Catch the brainwaves with George Mantey

As I’ve mentioned before, I have another blog/project called Thoughtwrestling.  I’ve just started a mailing list for that project.  You get a free copy of the Thoughtwrestling eBook for joining the list, plus you’ll get the newsletter and other goodies.  On top of that, if you join the Thoughtwrestling mailing list by midnight Friday, June 25, you’ll be entered in a draw to receive over $50 worth of free books!

More details here:

We’ve been active for close to three months now and we’ve seen the blog grow and community develop quite nicely during that time.

We’re going to take another step toward expanding Thoughtwrestling and developing community today by starting something new: a mailing list. It’s another way for us to stay in touch with you and give you chance to hear about things before they happen.

Here’s what we plan to offer you if you join the mailing list:

• A newsletter (possibly weekly) that will include links to our recent posts, original content, and more.
• Free stuff and deals
• Surprises
• Contests
• And anything else that we think you might like.

There’s a form at the bottom of this post that you can use to join our Thoughtwrestling mailing.  It’s an Aweber mailing list, including the double opt-in system, which means that even if you submit your E-mail address, you still have to click on a link in an E-mail to officially join the list.  This is good because it prevents people from signing you up without your knowledge or permission.

Your E-Mail address, when you join the mailing list, remains confidential and will not be shared with anyone.

Oh, almost forgot, there’s a little thank you gift for joining the E-Mail list:  a free eBook!  When you confirm your E-mail subscription, you’ll get the link to Thoughtwrestling – The Essential Starter, which includes some content you may have seen at the blog already and some stuff that you won’t have seen here.

And now the CONTEST:  for everyone who joins between now and Friday, June 25 at midnight EST, you’ll be entered in a draw to win free books!  There will be at least $50.00 worth of books and it will include, among other things, a copy of one of my all time favorite books, The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck!  The books will be mailed to you!

I’ve been looking forward to this for some time and it’s time to get moving.  Time for you to sign up and join this new extension of the Thoughtwrestling community!

EDIT:  very pleased with the response so far!!!

Thanks for your continued support!

The form’s below BUT if you’re reading this via E-Mail or RSS Reader, you won’t be able to see it.

You will have to click though to the blog and sign-up for the mailing list at the bottom of the actual post.  Which you should do.  Right now.  We’ll both appreciate it!!!

Other posts that you might enjoy reading:

• The birth of a nation – I mean a blog
• Two things
• Free eBook – Social Destinations of the Web
• Thought Radiation returns with issue 3
• Thought Radiation #2 is ready for your E-Mail inbox!

Cover of How to Read a Book (A Touchstone book)

You would think that people would know how to read, especially if they’re reading blogs, like you are.  But a lot of people could probably benefit from some ideas on how to read more effectively.

During the past week I’ve stumbled across three different articles that talk about the art of reading that I’d like to recommend to you.

How To Read (Brian Clark of Copyblogger)

Brian refers to How To Read A Book, which describes four different kinds of reading:  from the simplest skims to in-depth analysis, questioning and synthesis of information from books.  Brian urges bloggers and writers of all stripes to become better readers so they can do a better job of information their audiences.

Here’s a valuable quote from Brian’s post:

It’s been said that anyone can read five books on a topic and be an expert. That may be true, but how you read those five books will make all the difference. If you read those five books analytically, you will become an expert on what five authors have said. If you read five books syntopically, you will develop your own unique perspective and expertise in the field.

Master the True Art of Reading: How to Read A Book (Marelisa Faberge)

Marelisa uses How To Read A Book as source material but she takes a different approach by diving more deeply into the mechanics of reading.  She goes into the topic into a bit of detail but she makes it easy to understand and follow her directions.  It’s really well done.

Here’s some important insights:

When you read something–such as a magazine, a newspaper, a blog post, and so on–which is completely intelligible to you, your store of information might increase, but your understanding doesn’t. Your understanding was equal to these texts before you read them. Otherwise, you would have felt the puzzlement and perplexity that comes with reading something that is out of your depth.

When you read something that at first you don’t completely understand, then what you’re reading is initially higher than you are. The text contains insights which you lack. If you manage to acquire greater understanding after having read some text, you’ve elevated yourself through the activity of reading.

Do YOU challenge yourself enough with your reading?

Quite honestly, I’m glad I found both articles because they reinforce each other, despite being written by different authors.  I’m guessing that Marelisa read both the book and Brian’s article, which led to her own creation.  I think there’s a valuable lesson there:  take someone else’s starting point and expand upon it.  Worth remembering.

And then I found this one a few days later:

How To Read A Non-Fiction Book (Michael Hyatt)

Michael does not expressly describe the four levels of reading from How To Read A Book, but he alludes to both skimming and more detailed reading.  He describes ten tips for reading non-fiction books:  here a couple of Michael’s highlights:

Don’t feel that you need to finish. Not to be cynical, but most books aren’t worth finishing. I read until I lose interest. Then I move onto the next book. This is the secret to reading more.

and

Use a set of note-taking symbols. I use the same set of symbols I use when taking notes:

• If an item is particularly important or insightful, I put a star next to it.
• If an item requires further research or resolution, I put a question mark next to it.
• If an item requires an action on my part or follow-up, I put a ballot box (open square) next to it. When the item is completed, I check it off.

Maybe I’m a nerd, but I found these posts to be interesting, each in their own ways.

One other interesting point I’ve come across about reading came from one of my favorite books, Advantage Play (which you really need to read).  The author describes magician Stewart James’s practice of reading magazines and newspapers (keep in mind that this reading mainly occurred prior to 1980).

James would use a sheet of paper as a bookmark as he read an article or a book.  He would make notes about important points on the bookmark, recording the location of the information (article, author, topic, page number, date, etc.).  Later on, he would use the bookmark’s information to update his own manual indexing system, which allowed him to track different pieces of information and bring them together again later when he needed them.

Can you imagine doing that manually in this day and age?  Today we’ll bookmark individual web pages and use some tags to find them again.  Or we might just be able to rely on Google to find it again without writing down a single ting.

These are all particularly refreshing thoughts about reading when it seems like we live in the era of the iPhone style scanning of content in milliseconds.

Do you have any tips about reading that have worked for you?

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to decide what to read (and what not to read)? (mdzlog.alcor.net)
• The Billionaire Book Club: What the Rich Are Reading This Summer (blogs.wsj.com)
• Surfing serendipity: Austenology & Me, me (moonflowerdragon.blogspot.com)
• The book is dead – long live the book (heyjude.wordpress.com)

Other posts that you might enjoy reading:

• Twitter or write a book? Hm…
• Thoughts from Skellie of Skelliewag.org
• Thoughts from Jonathan Fields Career Renegade
• Just Write Blog Carnival entries
• Why do you blog if not for money?

I seem to do most of my writing elsewhere these days… nonetheless, I’ve got a couple of articles out there that I thought I’d let you know about:

Judging the Series Finales: ‘Lost’ vs. ‘Battlestar Galactica’ – the fine folks at Geeks of Doom (thanks Eve and Dave!) let me write another post using the Broadcasting Brain pseudonym (clever, huh?).  Lost and BSG are two of my all time favorite shows and it was pretty easy for me to crank out hundreds of words of opinion about the two finales.  The post hit the front page of Digg.com, much to my surprise.

EDIT:  June 12/10:  reading through the comments on this post, the commentators pointed out a couple of holes in my thinking about the finales.  While it doesn’t change my overall feelings about either finale, they do provide important points that need to be consider.  It’s all good.

What All Content Creators Need to Learn From Roger Ebert – this is my second Copyblogger guest post.  It was a way for me to express my admiration for Roger Ebert’s grace in dealing with profound disability while continuing to write wonderful stuff.  I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the fantastic editing of my post by Sonia Simone.

In fact, you can be the judge.  I’m reprinting the original draft of the post here:  you can decide which one is better.

Thanks!

#     #     #

What All Content Creators Need To Learn From Roger Ebert

He used to be the bespectacled chubby guy, brash and outspoken who spent decades riffing on movies to the delight of millions.  Now his voice only comes from machines:  one that makes sound for him; another that allows him to communicate with his fingers.  But Roger Ebert still has movies.  His voice still sings loud and clear with digital vocal chords.   Anyone who churns out content for a living needs to pay close attention to Ebert, because there’s a lot to learn there.

A brief background:  Roger Ebert did a lot of writing early in his career, writing screenplays and working with Russ Meyer, among others.  Movie and movie reviews were Ebert’s great passion, which he turned into a series of successful TV film review shows, starting with Sneak Previews with Gene Siskel in the late 1970s, and continuing on to the mid 2000s with other formats and collaborators.  At the same time, Ebert has maintained a strong series of film reviews in Chicago newspapers for several decades, wrote books on various subjects, and won the Pulitzer Prize from criticism in 1975.

Several bouts with cancer have deprived Roger Ebert of a television film reviewer key resource: his voice.  He has not been able to speak (or eat or drink) since 2006.  This would be a disaster that would destroy many people.  Yet Ebert has been able to carry on with his words.  He continues to receive new acclaim and appreciation for the quality and feeling of his writing.

Let’s see how content creators like you and I can benefit from Ebert’s example.

Maintain a sense of humor

It’s not fun to be deprived of natural pleasures.  Losses like this consume our life and energy, making every day seem torturous and joyless.  I’m sure Roger Ebert must have his bad days, but it never affects the quality of his writing.  His words continue to sparkle and shine with life.

He receives continual praise for the power of his insights and the humor sprinkled within his work.  Ebert’s recent criticism of Glenn Beck contains several pointed barbs and clever remarks that show that his wit and senses are still strong.  He doesn’t go for the LOL moment, but he uses sharp observation and analysis to make engrossing content, as he does in The London Perambulator.

Ebert’s ability to use humor effectively despite his ordeals is inspiring.  He continues to provide enjoyment for the rest of us.

Lesson: a sense of humor is worth its weight in gold for you and your audience.

Keep a sharp mind

It’s easy to take our minds for granted.  Personally, I fear the possibility of going senile or losing the power of coherent thought and memory.  I cherish the ability to think, reason, and communicate.  Losing the ability to speak would be horrible, but I could manage. But if I lost the ability to form coherent thoughts and communicate, life would be pointless.  Robert Ebert is fortunate to have maintained his full mental faculties and ability to write wonderfully and thoughtfully.

His analysis moves among many topics:

• the personal (Putting a Better Face on Things, where he ponders the possibility of trying reconstructive surgery on his face again)
• children’s education, via film reviews: A Superwoman for Kenya, but America is Still Waiting For Superman
• the fate of America’s public services, extrapolating from the example of charges for fire department work when a fire isn’t actually present

Lesson: Your content needs to teach, inform, or otherwise stimulate your reader to think.

Focus on what you can (still) do well

Ebert was a Pulitzer Prize winning writer before becoming a famous film critic.  Some people think his writing is even better since he lost the ability to speak.  That may be a sentimental judgment, but he’s certainly no worse.  His ability to analyze and reflect upon movies (or virtually any topic) is strong.  He writes in a way that reaches both the average person and his peers.

Ebert is rarely in front of cameras any more (his recent appearance on Oprah is a memorable exception), but he remains a prolific writer.  He uses notepad and pen to communicate in person and the keyboard for larger audiences.  Profiled recently in Esquire magazine, Ebert offered up a journal entry to explain the power of writing:  ”When I am writing my problems become invisible and I am the same person I always was. All is well. I am as I should be.”  The article goes on to argue that his online journal is the best work of his life due to its thoughtful, introspective nature.

Lesson: be thankful for what you can do well; do it as long and as vigorously as you can.

Be honest

Ebert has plenty to complain about:  his bouts with cancer and reconstructive surgery failures, plus the general decline in his health. For that matter, so would a couple of other smart guys like, say, Jon Morrow or Stephen Hawking.  Speaking, eating, drinking and mobility:  we consider these things to be key parts of the human experience.  These three men are definitely human, though.

None of them are wasting their time whining, either.  I think these three guys have their fair share of happiness and fulfillment.  They all enjoy what they do and they are damned good at it.  They don’t look for pity:  they are sincere when they say that they are doing what they love to do.  By their example, they are providing inspiration to us all.  The Esquire article features a small picture of a Post It note written by Ebert:   “There is no need to pity me.  Look how happy I am.  This has led to an exploring of writing.”  He was being sincere. In the Putting a Better Face on Things post, Ebert gives a frank and insightful look into his feelings about reconstructive surgery and prosthetics.

Ebert’s journal has produced close to half a million words of honesty that are touching thousands, if not millions, of readers.

Can you claim the same thing?  Do you need to drop a façade and put what you really think into your work?  If you feel you can’t, then are you really in the right situation?  Are you doing what you really should be doing?  Or is the golden handcuff feeding your bank balance but feasting on your soul?

Lesson: use your life experiences to fuel your work.  Be forthright and frank whenever you talk about yourself.  Use your life lessons in the context of education and inspiration.

Let your passion save and sustain you

Ebert makes this point loud and clear in the Esquire article:  “it is saving me.”  His journaling has led him to a gripping and moving exploration of the art of writing.  Writing provides him with continued purpose in trying circumstances.

How many people is he inspiring with this new phase of work?  Hundreds?  Thousands?  Millions?

Can you do the same?  It’s worth thinking about, isn’t it?

Lesson: your passion can carry you through hardships. If even a fraction of that passion spills into your content, the possibilities for building your audience and developing true fans are huge.  People can tell when you’re “phoning it in” and when you’re fully invested in your writing.  Don’t phone it in.

Parting thoughts

I can’t claim to be objective about Roger Ebert because I’m a huge fan of what he’s doing with his writing.  That’s OK.  If Ebert can bare his soul in his journals and enthrall his readers, I can try to emulate even a little bit of that spark.

You can, too.  Try it – it might be the best thing that ever happened to your work.

Other posts that you might enjoy reading:

• Guest post at Pick The Brain
• Guest post at SiliconANGLE
• My Geeks (of Doom) roots are showing again
• Guest posting at Mashable.com
• Everyone is working for the workweek end