In the medical profession, folks graduate from medical school, but they are not yet ready to go out and practice medicine- they need to do some more formal training- a residency- usually in some sort of specialty.  (Even family practice is a specialty.)  Yet in residency, the training and additional education young doctors need before they can practice on their own comes in two forms.  One is specialized reading- sometimes the reading is assigned, but most of the time, it is assumed you will use your “educational money” and buy the specialty text books you’ll need, not only as a resident but in practice, when you come up against something you might not have seen before.  The second is on the job practice, where you see patients but are supervised by another “attending” physician, who is supposed to help you learn and guide you, like a mentor.  Not all doctors teaching residents are good at imparting the art of their practice to others, as well as the base knowledge required to do the job.  Practicing medicine and teaching it are two different things, and not everyone is good at both.

Similarly, many teachers went into teaching because they love learning.  They loved being in school themselves.  They loved having a guiding path through all the cool stuff there is to know, and somewhere along the way, decided they wanted to do this themselves.  They mastered the whole school process, start to finish. They almost have a nostalgia for school- it is a precious place to them.   But the problem is often that the best students don’t always make the best teachers.

Teaching is a different skill set from learning.  While teaching and learning are clearly complimentary, they are not the same thing.  My dad, for example, was a brilliant engineer, and fantastic at math.  Yet when he tried to help me with calculus homework, I often ended up frustrated and in tears.  For me, the conflict arose because he largely couldn’t remember what it was like not to know all this math, and couldn’t explain it in a way a neophyte would understand- what the Heath Brothers call “The Curse of Knowledge” in their great book, Made to Stick. I think many teachers suffer from this problem as well-they love their subject matter and understand it so well that they have a hard time remembering what it was like not to know.

The skill of being able to be a guide through complicated material, all while making it an exciting and engaging process is a rare skill.  While I think there are methods and checklists and other tools people can use to help make what they know accessible to others, great teaching is an art form.  It requires not only understanding the subject area, but understanding it well enough and liking it enough that you can make it exciting for almost anyone.  It requires a bit of stage presence, improv skills, and being able to communicate with the students so you know what they understand and what they don’t.  Teaching at its best, is an interactive experience between teacher and student. (This is also why going to high school or college just by watching a bunch of DVD’s is not equivalent to being enrolled in a real school with real classrooms, but I digress.)

Sometimes the best teachers are people who are less interested in the one true path, but recognize there are many individual ways to get to the same goal.  They are good mentors, guides and parents.  They are interested in someone else’s success, and they get joy in seeing others succeed, and don’t worry that someone else may be smarter than they are- in fact, the best teachers are often looking for those smarter than themselves, so they can continue learning and growing themselves.

The essence of a great teacher involves being passionate about your subject area, and being a fantastic communicator, who can turn that love of knowledge into a spark of inspiration and curiosity in others.  It’s the reason why I think all teachers should learn a bit about marketing and the way people turn commercial ideas into what Seth Godin would call “an idea virus” that spreads on its own.  Using the tools the Heath Brothers talk about in Made to Stick, for example, can help anybody make their ideas and communications more effective and more memorable, by essentially hacking what our brain natively finds most interesting.  This can help business people end “death by powerpoint” presentations, but it can just as easily make you a better writer, a better teacher, and a better communicator across the board.

In the end, good teaching requires that people are personally invested in the process and look on it as mentoring as well as a delivery of knowledge vehicle.  The teacher might be driving the bus, but the bus can be an old school bus, a greyhound, a tricked out  tour bus, a local or express.  The bus comes in many sizes, varieties and with different amenities.  But unless the bus is responsive to the needs of the passengers, and can get them to where they need to be, it’s not very useful.  The driver, like a good teacher, needs to be aware of the road, the path, and the needs of the passengers in order to do the best job possible.

We need to make sure all of our teachers- at every level, from elementary through graduate school, training and beyond- understand not only how to make lesson plans, but how to meet the needs of kids in their classrooms.  And sometimes, it’s going to require “marketing” that science lesson, history or math to a group of reluctant learners, to get them on the right road in the long run.

Are you a good teacher?  What makes a good teacher to you?  Is it a skill or an art or a mixture of both?

Cash feels like we’re handing something tangible to another person.  It’s real.  It’s limited in our pockets and wallets, even if we can go to an ATM and replenish our supply.  Psychologically, I treat cash in my wallet differently than I treat plastic, even when I use my debit card, and as a result, I tend to make more careful and considered choices.

Checks are the next level of payment.  They require us to write out the number, consider the balance in our account, and otherwise take stock of what the numbers and payment mean in a larger context.  While it separates us a degree from the cash transaction, it still requires a more intensive action than other forms of payment.

Payments by debit and credit card are more elusive.  We can get stuff by flashing this little piece of plastic for goods, but the day of reckoning is not immediate.  We can easily overextend the amount we intended to spend, and even exceed our limit, with little or no consequences until some point in the future. (Unless of course, you are in enough debt to warrant a phone call about exceeding your limit while in the store.)  This postponing of accountability for money spent tends to make the expenditure itself feel somewhat artificial, and the bill at the end of the month has caught more than one consumer by surprise.

Banks know this, of course.  The more people that spend through plastic and the fewer that pay through cash, the more they are likely to spend and the more fees and interest are generated for the company.  This is why people are given debit cards almost automatically for every bank account, with the hopes that you will spend your money, rather than make the bank hold on to it for you.  Your deposit is an asset for you, but a liability in the big picture to the bank, who then “owes” you that money on demand.

It’s also why new forms of transactions- electronic, the wave of a pass at a gas station or card machine, or payment through a cell phone or text message are equally attractive to people wanting your money, but more dangerous for you, as the exchange seems less and less real, less memorable, and the only reminder is the bill at the end of the month.  Even that ugly physical reminder of your spending and psychological prompt to be more judicious in your spending is becoming removed to the digital realm, where every company is encouraging you to pay bills electronically, saving them the cost of mail and of processing your check.  It also removes any and all excuses for “But the check’s in the mail” or “I never got my statement”.

As this recession drags on and people continue to have money troubles of one form or another, maybe one place to consider making changes is in the form of payment you choose.  Cash will keep you more accountable by far.

However, even I succumb to the lure of electronic payment of debt.  I put my kids on a plan where I direct deposit their allowances into their account, eliminating every debate about allowance, but likewise complicating and making the threat of suspending allowance all the more distant and vague.  They love feeling like grownups and having more control over how they spend their allowance, including using a debit card.  I’m hoping this will teach them how to manage money, even virtually, while they’re young, rather than having their first credit and debit experience closer to college.

Virtual payments and management of money and credit are skills we all need to have.  Build these skills into your kids as soon as you can, because these payments are not just in the future, but they are the now.  And the more divorced we becoming from the tangible forms of payment, the less direct accountability and more mistakes we’re all prone to make.

The thing you create has a relationship or a “contract” with the audience on some level.  A meal is expected to nourish and please the senses.  If it does neither, it fails and disappoints the audience, essentially breaking the contract- the expectations that were set before the interaction ever began.  A blog post is expected to entertain and inform.  If I don’t make you giggle or make you think, just a little bit, then I’m probably failing you as a reader, even if I’m meeting my own internal obligation to myself to write and explore new ideas.  Similarly, If I make a sweater that itches, doesn’t fit the intended wearer or is made out of something that doesn’t even keep them warm, I’ve failed on everything that was supposed to make that object useful and wanted- breaking the whole contract or expectation created in the making of the object in the first place.

As we create new things and put them out into the world, we hope the audience will be appreciative.  For example, I hope my podcasts are helpful to parents and educators on learning disabilities.  (Thanks to Anne Martin for recently proving to me that my work is valuable, even when I take it for granted.) Likewise, I hope my children, likewise, will find friends and family who get them and find them worthwhile humans. Most of the time, this seems like its true.

But as we all know, not everything we create will reach a receptive and attentive audience.  Sometimes, the audience will hate what you create.  Try cooking a new ethnic cuisine for a bunch of kids, and I get looks like border from the “You’re trying to poison me” to “I Trusted you!” to “Really?  What made you think I would even try that?” (Of course,then they try the same meal at a friend’s house and report they love it, and ask why I never make it at home….but that’s another blog post on How Not To Kill Your Children or Go Crazy)  Sometimes, you spend a lot of time creating something you love, but no one else seems to care.  Sometimes, your brilliant idea comes off as mundane and unimportant or insignificant to others.  That feeling of disappointment, or being ignored, feels pretty crappy.

What we need to learn to do is figure out, from the get go, who our intended audience is.  Is it ourselves?  Is it our friends? Family?  General public? A specific type of person?  If we create our “thing” so that it’s closely tailored to that person’s needs and wants, it’s more likely to be well received, and if we don’t meet their needs and expectations, it will fall flat, or worse.  It’s wonderful to create for yourself.  But you can’t expect that others will necessary see the beauty you see in your creations or have equal appreciation for the work that it took- it wasn’t made for them, it was made for you.  But if you are seeking a larger audience, you do have to think about their wants and needs and try to meet those metrics.  Artists may use the term “selling out” when considering creation for commercial intent, but I’ve yet to see an artist really complain when someone wants to buy their work…

At Podcasters Across Borders, a person creating videos for Medicin Sans Frontiere (Doctors without Borders) talked about who the audience was for these documentary style pieces they were doing- moving, important pieces showing the suffering going on all over the world, yet when I asked her whether or not they hooked these pieces up with an “ask” for a donation or information on where to go to help or do more, she told me that fund raising was managed by another department.  I thought this was a bit silly, not connecting the motivation to act with the “something to do”, but then I realized I often do the same thing on my creative efforts.  I forget to ask people to subscribe to this blog.  I forget to ask them to follow me on twitter (@ldpodcast, @whitneyhoffman).  I forget to ask people to friend me on Facebook, or send me email, or otherwise take some action-I don’t even ask up front for comments on my blog, even though I love comments.

So for those of you in my audience, who have bothered to read this far, I’d love to interact with you more.  Please friend me on Facebook or follow me on twitter.  Please comment here- I love comments, as do other bloggers.  If you like a book I’ve recommended, please use my Amazon store- I get a few cents commission on the purchase, which will in turn feed my reading habit.  I apologize for taking you for granted sometimes, for objectifying you in Google Analytic numbers, or otherwise not meeting your needs in the process.  Let me know what you’re thinking and what posts you like best, and I’ll try to do my job better as a writer, to meet those needs in addition to my own.

Thanks for stopping by and reading, and for being an audience for my work.

If you want to know more about this concept of objects and audience, you should check out the excellent documentary, Objectified.  (small clip below)  It’s available through iTunes and it’s made me think even more about how creativity and audience are more tightly bound than we usually acknowledge.

So I made my way to the Apple Store at Christiana Mall in Delaware, excited and hopeful. The mall had a jammed parking lot, like a big weekend sale was going on, yet it was 7 am on a weekday morning, where no one else than a few construction or delivery trucks would typically be present. People had been lined up for many hours before the store opened at 7, and clearly, I should have been there earlier, but I’m still unwilling to stand around alone in the dark at the mall without big burly security, so I took my chances.

The line reminded me of the days when I used to stand in line for concert tickets. People were in a good and festive mood, talking and comparing notes. It was a community building experience, and I met a lot of interesting people, including a nursing student, wanting one before heading to Ghana this summer. One couple had their new, 8 day old baby with them, making him the official youngest Apple fanboy I have met to date. Doctors, residents and nurses started showing up in their scrubs, clearly getting off a shift at the local hospital. Apple employees delivered smart water and snacks out to people waiting in line. It was largely a happy group, even for those of us who were skeptical at our place in line and probability of securing a new phone that day.

After about an hour and a half in line, Apple employees informed us that they had handed out slips to everyone ahead of us, counting down the number of phones they had in stock, the reservations, and the number of people in line. While they said they could not grantee those of us towards the back, they did let us know that there was a possibility some of the people in front may not be able to activate their phones, might decide not to purchase, or not want to pay the upgrade fee, so there was a slim possibility we could still get one. Looking at the people ahead of me, I knew that the 50 or more ahead would easily buy up any of the “unqualified” buyer’s phones, and my best bet was to head home.

I headed home and placed my order online for delivery in mid-July, which will be just fine.  (I just found out it should be here in a few days). But I’m really glad I had the “line” experience anyway. I met some interesting people, and we bonded, even if it was in a kind of “sour grapes” way, as we began to despair about our ability to score a phone, and kvetched about the bottlenecks of the online pre-order process.

While I didn’t manage to score a new iPhone as of yet, I have been able to play with some of the features on the new OS upgrade on my 3GS. The best feature by far has got to be the folder features for the apps- all you have to do is drag one app on top of the other and create a folder, letting me finally put all my fitness apps and news apps in a smaller space, allowing for additional apps on the phone while increasing organization at the same time. Secondarily, syncing my iBooks content with my phone and iPad is equally terrific, and I’m thrilled by that alone.

Mostly, the upgrade to the iPhone 4 will be about better photos and longer battery life for me, over and above the OS upgrade. I’m excited to see the front facing camera and try the video chat on the fly, but I’m still basically in love with the iPhone as a mobile computing device.  Despite the tech issues that have been coming out, I still hold out hope that this purchase was a wise one, and the iPhone will deliver an even better mobile experience that I already enjoy.

Now if AT&T could just really improve reception out here in the suburbs, I would be completely happy. But that’s a continual issue that any and all mobile providers will continue to wrestle with- as more people demand mobile access and get used to having information and connectivity on the fly, the more bandwidth they will suck up, and the more challenging it will be to maintain pipes big enough to satisfy demand. The iPhone and its smartphone brethren have changed the way we looked at mobile access to the web- putting it in our pockets instead of in our briefcases. Now that we have it, it’s hard to imagine not having this level of connectivity at all times, and that will continue to stress networks.

And this is why Apple continues to succeed and thrill people- they give us stuff we couldn’t imagine needing. It drives people from all walks of life to line up for a new electronic toy like they used to line up for Cabbage Patch dolls or concert tickets- and some how, even when we go away empty handed, we can still feel like we’re part of the experience and part of a larger community. Even those of us who were disappointed about not being able to get the phone that day were still happy to have had an experience with others, and share a bit of excitement that can’t be equaled by the Fedex guy in the driveway. The sense of the club isn’t there.

And by giving the line a try, I still ended up with a great experience, a few new friends and a good story for a blog post. I just consider it a really early morning tweet up.

Sometimes virtual just can’t replace the joy of community, even in times of frustration.  Even if I have iPhone envy, perhaps the anticipation will make the ultimate item worth the wait.  Delayed gratification just might be worth it.  We’ll see.

You need not attend every battle to which you are invited.

This means simply that often people will say something or do something that seems like a provocation, a launching point into an argument or confrontation.  Remember that you can always say no and walk away.  Don’t reflexively take the bait.  Sometimes you get farther by avoiding confrontation by refusing to engage than actively seeking it out.  Think of this as not so much “letting them get away with it” as choosing not to play that game- it takes two to argue.  Or as the old joke about lawyers goes- When there’s one lawyer in town, he dines on burgers, when there are two or more lawyers in town, every one of them dines on steak.

We Teach People How To Treat Us

If you feel like someone walks all over you, why is that?  Have you let them know that that’s okay and acceptable to you?  Do you always say yes when they ask you for a favor, even of they don’t always say yes when you ask in return?  Then why do you keep saying yes?  As I tell my kids-

“If you don’t listen when I ask you nicely to do something, and only seem to listen when I scream, then you teach me asking nicely does not work and only screaming does.  Sooner or later I am going to stop trying to ask nicely first and just go to screaming, because that’s what works.  Is that what you want me to do?  No?  then please respond when I’m nice and show me that works!”

They teach me how to treat them, and vice versa.  Remember that you do have choices and more control than you think over things.

You Cannot Change What You Do Not Acknowledge

This is a big one I got from Dr. Phil- as trite as it sounds, you can’t change any behavior you don’t first recognize as something needing change.   This one goes right along with “People do what works” – we crave attention and acknowledgment, and even negative attention is better than none, because at least it shows someone cares.

When I see parents struggling with kids who may have learning disabilities, but are doing everything in their power to ignore that fact and avoid having their child tested, I know this is a case where ignorance seems like bliss.  If they do find out the child has an issue that can be addressed, sometimes as easily as getting extra help, or trying medication, they then have to explain to themselves why they have put their child and themselves through the pain of not helping sooner.    For homeowners, maybe it’s something like ignoring a roof leak- pretending it’s not a problem only works so long until the ceiling eventually caves in and costs you more money down the road.  But you can’t fix a problem if you won’t acknowledge it exists in the first place.

You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true.  You may have to work for it, however. This one, and the next few, come from Illusions – The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach, published back in 1977.  These little sentences got me through some rough times in high school and college.  This one in particular- you can have a wish, but you may have to work for it to make it true, is important.  You can probably accomplish more than you know or are aware of, but it’s going to require a dream, and a willingness to see it through, even if there are rough waters along the way.  The question you’ll have to ask yourself is whether you are willing to do the work required.

Argue your limitations, and Sure Enough- they’re yours. We all know this one- the moment you say you can’t, you are absolutely right.  Instead, go as far as you can- ask for help if you need to along the way.  Surprise yourself by the fact that much of your obstacles are ones you put in your own path.

Live never to be ashamed if anything you do or say is published around the world- even if what is published is not true. It’s amazing this was written in a pre-internet world, but could not be more true today.  Make sure that you live your life so that your reputation precedes you, and if anyone does say something negative, your reputation and your friends will be there to defend you when needed, or help if you need it, or otherwise come to your aid.  People screw up.  I do all the time.  But by being able to be honest about that, I can deal with anything bad that someone says, because I own my actions and I try not to do anything that I’m unwilling to own and be able to support or justify.

Life rewards Action.  Sitting on the sidelines and never taking a risk won’t get you ahead, or anywhere else for that matter.  Sometimes our inaction on a project or topic tells us a lot about how we feel about it as well.  If you feel stuck, look at why you might be stuck.  If you can find forward motion, you can gain momentum and move mountains.

And the last silly one:

I’m pretty sure that with a cape and a tiara I could save the world.- Sometimes you just have to believe you can, and swing for the fences.  No guts, no glory.

As we get older, the areas to channel this energy get to be fewer and fewer.  There’s no more after school sports.  People play less games in general.  Competition with others at work needs to be carefully harnessed and channeled.  Even the sports most adults play are largely competitions against yourself, not other people.   If you run, or swim, or even do martial arts, the majority of the competition is focused not on winning, but on mastery, or beating your own time, or whatever- it’s just not the same as it was.

This driving of competition from the external measures to more internal measures of success can be tricky.  After all, other than in an occasional blog comment, it’s rare that someone says “Great Job of writing” or “Loved the way you went to the gym without whining” or “Wow, you got all those errands done today?  Amazing.”   We get less external validation of whether the job we’re doing is good or bad, and I think it makes it a whole lot easier for us to lose our way with ourselves.

Chip and Dan Heath talk about the Curse of Knowledge in Made to Stick, and Marcus Buckingham talks about the same thing in Now, Discover Your Strengths.  When things are easy for us, we tend to take this for granted, and we assume these things are easy for everybody.  Sometimes, this means we don’t always make what we’re saying clear to other people, assuming they understand us when they might not, because we don’t all share the identical set of experience or background knowledge.  After all, we don’t always share the same employer like we used to share the same set of teachers in highschool or college- each day is a much more solitary versus group experience.  We develop different talents and insights, but we still assume everyone has the same experience or expertise of perspective that we do, when they just don’t.  As a result, we take for granted the talents we have, and think they’re not as vitally important and worth while to others as they most certainly are- not everyone is starting from the same place anymore.

This sense of taking your talents for granted has often led me to chasing the things in my life that are difficult for me, in order to create that sense of competition and stretching myself.  Sometimes it takes the form of taking on too much at once, as if juggling three, then four and then five projects, adding each one like an additional ball to a street juggler, somehow will prove I’m amazing, rather than simply crazy and overestimating my ability.  Hint: stretching your nerves and stretching your talents and skills are not always the same thing. Someone could’ve let me know this earlier.  Just Sayin’.

As I’ve taken on the task of getting in shape, I’m finding that there’s a difference between physical and mental challenge.  But the two are also permanently intertwined.  For example, in order to get through my first half marathon, there were times where sitting down for a few seemed like a rational thing to do, but I knew if I stopped moving, it would be over.  The drive to finish something I started was stronger than the pain and discomfort.  And I learned that there’s a mental toughness that’s integrated with physical toughness- there is a mental part to these events that gives you the courage to stretch and do more than you ever thought you could.

The second half marathon I did made me realize that even if I thought my training was inadequate, I would never know for sure unless I did the race and tested myself.  The push to do something, even if I could have easily decided not to, with no real world repercussions was that internalized competition.  It’s the sense of needing to know if I could do it, if I could push, if I could manage, and then set a bar which I could surpass in the future.  It was much more about living up to my personal expectations and testing them, rather than meeting external expectations.  And frankly, when I disappoint myself, its often much more significant in the long run than if I disappoint someone else.  (As my husband often reminds me, even though I am self-employed, I have a real B*tch for a boss- she neverlets meget away with anything.)

After you get out of school, there are very few areas in your life where people hand out medals and trophies for a job well done.  We’re supposed to internalize that sense of accomplishment, and be satisfied with a job well done.  That’s hard, because the markers of a job well done are more slippery than a clear first or second place in a competition.  You can always second guess your choices, what you could have done better, even when everyone seems to be pleased as punch with your performance- our internal critics sometimes are the meanest people around.

My inner critic is pretty harsh, so when I see T-shirts like “I have a skinny woman inside me, but I can usually shut up that bitch with cookies”, I always laugh.  It hits close to home.  I know I have the keys to that door, but do I want to let that other person out?  What would happen if she gets free?  Do I like her?  I don’t always know the answer to that question.  And since I am big on answers, I know I have to answer this question before I can move forward.  I think I’ll like her just fine, actually.  She’s probably not the monster I make her out to be, and maybe she deserves a chance to have her voice heard as well.

A medal at the end of a half marathon feels great.  It feels earned.  Regardless of the place I come in, I feel like I accomplished something- something that challenged my perceptions of myself, and I faced them and beat them back.  Now if I can just challenge my inner demon and critic to a really good arm wrestling match, maybe we can settle this thing once and for all and become friends.  It would be excellent to hear those words, “job well done” and not doubt it, or think I can do better, always better.    It’s feeling that sense of accomplishment inside, and owning the internal as well as the external awards that I have to work on.   I’m getting there, but it’s definitely a work in progress.

The web started out as a way for academics to share information.  They built the web as a “platform” for these conversations.  I don’t think they could have forseen what it has become over time, because it has evolved, as the needs of people using it have changed over time, with each new tool or site or use adding additional knowledge and information in its wake.  Sure, the idea of a platform, like a blank canvas, that changes as the needs and creativity of the users changes, is amazing.  I’d argue that with that logic, we can look at democracy and capitalism as “just a platform”, but clearly they were created with some sort of intent behind them.

Platforms, like Facebook or Twitter, have clearly evolved over time.  Like the code that runs the web itself, its changed enough that its original form seems barely recognizable, like an old farm house that kept having rooms added on to it until barely anything of the first structure exists.  Sometimes the way the initial foundation is constructed reflects what tools were in use and available at that time, leaving us with archaic pieces glommed on to less efficient pieces of code (cough- Windows- cough).  The question then becomes whether or not to abandon the old to make way for a whole new platform, like the Mac did with its OS based on Unix, or to keep modifying the old, and hope the rickety building sticks together.  The legacy of the old foundation and initial purpose still flows through the veins of the platform, however.

The creators of platforms, ranging from web communities or even the iPod and iPad, may be surprised, and even thrilled at what people have been able to do with their creations, enjoying how these “children” have grown up over time, changed, evolved, and even exceeded the parent’s wildest dreams at the moment of conception.  I’m sure Mark Zuckerberg  has probably had a cringe moment or two when his Mom or old girlfriend contacted him on Facebook, but has also been thrilled that people see him as a visionary and having created something 500 Million people engage in- exceeding the population of the US.

Sometimes its difficult to see what to do with blank canvases.  Sometimes its hard to explain to others “What is it good for? Why do I need to use it?”  But if you ever want someone to engage, to have the platform grow and evolve, you had better be able to answer, even in a simple way, why someone would possibly want to be there, and what the attraction is.  If you can’t bait the hook, you can’t catch the fish, or in business, make the sale.

So, my dear geekarati friends, please have patience with the lay folk and come up with a better and more compelling sales pitch than “it’s just a platform.”  That tends to be what we refer to as content-free speech- words are being said, but the meaning is obscure.

This made me think about the longevity of digital media. Some things, like blogs and podcasts, are more durable. This information is stored not only on your website and servers, but by others, including the Internet Wayback Machine. Twitter, and to a certain extent, Facebook, relies more on real-time day to day content, rather than provide any sort of long term search-ability or archiving. Yet with more and more people sharing news items on Twitter, communicating with customers and the like, how much of this information will continue to exist in the future? What becomes “evidence” could be saved for later on, whether its for journalists researching a story, hisotrians, or even laywers?  Would this stuff be admissible in a Court of Law? I’m not sure whether or not we know the answer to any of these questions yet.

For me, I often share information and links on Facebook, sometimes for me, sometimes for friends. I’ve opted to share many things through Delicious, and to Facebook through Friendfeed. This means I have a tagged list of blog posts and articles, creating my own clip file, my own library and encyclopedia that grows over time. But if I only tagged this stuff and shared it out through Twitter, it would likely be gone.

How much of what you are creating online is meant to have a lifespan?  How long to you want to be held responsible for opinions, tweets, snarky comments, etc.?  How much is intended to be in the moment alone?

A case in point is the LD Podcast.  I have had the show on hiatus, and I’m working hard to put it back into production in the near future, spurned on by recent emails from a number of sources who are discovering the content for the first time.  I’m realizing that the content I create has a lifespan far longer than my attention span, and it continues to provide value to others, long after I have taken it for granted.

I hope this provides a little food for thought- Where are you putting your digital media energies?  What’s providing the most real time versus long tail value?  And, what can you do to create both?

Most of all, don’t forget that sometimes, creating content with longevity might actually create the most long term value.

(1) unless they have been stored, archived or otherwise placed in different formats…

A friend of mine had an issue with a local coffee shop, that I happen to love.  There was an issue with credit card numbers being harvested, most likely by an employee, and this caused a headache both for the customers and the business.  My friend now has a vendetta against the shop, because she felt they did not act fast enough, or seem to take it seriously enough from her perspective.  From an outsider’s perspective, I see the notice in the shop about the incident and why they no longer accept credit cards.  I’ve always paid in cash, so I am largely unaffected, and feel like the business has done what it could to make the situation better, and solve the problem.  Yet, when I check in on Foursquare at the location, I receive a warning text from my friend not to trust this business.

I get that my friend is irate and sees this as an opportunity to both protect others and send a message to the business that they should treat their customers better.  But I wonder when this bad experience becomes slander.  When is it a vendetta?  What can the business do to show my friend that they made a mistake?  That they get it now?  That they have done what they can, and need to move on?  When will my friend decide that they have done enough electronic mayhem and decide that it’s okay to let go now?  (Side note- What’s the difference between a pit bull and a REALLY pissed off customer?  A pit bull will eventually let go.)

In social media, we openly acknowledge and encourage everyone we know to use the platforms out there to talk, both good and bad, about the experiences you have.  We tell businesses to listen to their customers and respond, because a quick response to bad stuff is primarily good customer service, and secondly, tends to minimize the “I hate (insert business name here) and will do everything at my disposal to let the world know- and aren’t you unlucky that I know how to make this part of your digital footprint???”

From my own perspective, I make every effort to resolve any issues I have locally first.  Then, if it’s a chain or franchise, I may escalate up the ladder.  If I am not getting satisfaction, I may take it to my blog or twitter to see if I get a response.  But mostly, since I know the ‘net is a powerful tool, I save it as the last ditch response to problems, rather than the first.  I try to be someone who is all about building good relationships, especially since you never know if you’re going to need that bridge you’re about to burn later on.  I basically always want to solve the problem, forgive and move on, because frankly, anger takes too much of my time and energy, and does more harm to me than good.

The plain truth is that we’re never going to be perfect.  We’re going to make mistakes.  Acknowledging them early, and doing what you can to solve the problem and save the relationship is optimal, but sometimes, it’s just too far gone to repair.  Asking what you can do to make it better or help make amends goes a long way to dampening down the fire in the belly that happens when people are mad or disappointed, but sometimes, nothing will work and the relationship, like with that old boyfriend or girlfriend, is simply over.  If you can both part and go on about your business- that’s the best for both parties.  Turning someone into Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction and creating a stalker, set on doing you harm, is far from optimal.  But the more you can do to help that person let go and move on, the better off everyone will be in long run.  Preserve everyone’s dignity.  Acknowledge mistakes.  Acknowledge their feelings, and that there’s little you can do to make it up to them in a way that will be satisfying.  And agree to move on, as best as possible.

The metrics we use to repair relationships with friends, family members and coworkers work the same way with business relationships.  Treat everyone- your customers, your business partners, your suppliers, your bosses- everyone- with respect, and the likelihood and frequency of the irreparable relationship will go down.  And that’s for everyone’s benefit in the long run.

When I first started to write a book, I wrote episodically.  I’d write in long spurts, put the piece down, and come back days later, maybe adding some, maybe starting over.  When I reread the pieces to edit them together, it became apparent I had a problem with tone or voice. The mood I was in when I first sat down, or what was exciting to me at the moment colored the tone and the “voice” of what I had written, and it sounded like two different people had written sections of the chapter.  This change made the piece harder to read and pay attention to, because it felt choppy, like too many people were talking to me at the same time.

What’s interesting about this, is that if you look at some of the work of Vygotsky and other developmental psychologists, they talk about our development of our “inner voice” as a dialogue between us and the outside world.  For example, as you read this blog post, you “hear” the words in your head, as if I were sitting beside you, talking.  Our “voices” go from being external when we’re children to gradually becoming internal, although in moments of stress or difficult problem solving, we may still find that we start talking to ourselves, trying to work things out.  (This is why you can often find me asking out loud, “Where did I put those stupid car keys?” even if no one is around to answer me.)  This inner voice is real- it’s our narrator, so to speak, and this carries over to all of our modes of expression, even writing.

So back to editing-  When my writing got disjointed, it was like several different internal voices were speaking at the same time, and the flow of the work became harder to follow.  The internal voice, the narrator in our heads, was no longer one person, but several.  In order to make the piece flow and make sense, it becomes incredibly important to find that voice- that one person, so to speak, so the writing feels like a whole, not like different sentences in various typefaces, stapled together like a ransom note.

If you think of writing like music, there’s a big difference between playing the notes on a page and “making music” which requires both a flow of the notes, but an emotion as well behind the playing.  It’s why we can hear the same piece of music played by different people, but get something new out of every variation.  There’s a fluency that develops, like a child going from reading one   word   at   a   time  to reading whole sentences, to then reading with expression.  It’s the difference between reading a play and seeing it come to life with a performance of the same work.  The fluency and flow of the expression, the voice that develops, makes all the difference in whether  your writing works or whether it seems like a collection of disparate ideas with no common thread.

Now, if we apply this same concept to social media, I think companies and individuals are most successful when they find their voice.  Different people can contribute to the whole, but the common purpose needs to feel like it aligns together.  This is why when companies not known for cheeky ads try to pull one off, sometimes it succeeds, because it seems in line with the personification of the brand, and other times it fails miserably, because it runs counter to what people expect as an authentic voice of the company.

For example, Apple can get away with the “PC v Mac” ads because the personifications seem to ring true- it lines up with people’s experience and it matches what Apple has positioned itself as- an outsider.  It’s also why the whole controversy about the new iPhone is causing a stir, because it makes Apple look more like the mean establishment guys, and betrays the cool dude factor.  In contrast,  the “Im a PC and Windows 7 was my idea” while it seems very Microsoft, makes no sense to me whatsoever.  I do not believe for one second that that girl in the french cafe had anything to do with Windows 7, so the ad leaves me puzzling over what message I’m supposed to be getting here, because it seems disjointed and the meaning is lost for me.

In writing, in music, on Facebook, on Twitter, or in marketing in general, you need to find a comfortable voice that the company can use and emulate.  People have to be able to have a sense of who the company is, a personification they can identify with.  This is what makes each company unique, and why mimicry is so hard- even in real life, few people can pull off pitch perfect imitation of others.  By being ourself and finding your voice, you find why your are special and what you have to contribute.  Without this voice, you’re still like a confused teenager, trying on different personalities until they find one that seems to fit.

Don’t be that kid.