A Post About Nothing – Reflecting On Signal To Noise

Jan 31 2010

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In 2010 I’ve been reflecting a lot about life distractions. We evangeslize all of these things like facebook, Twitter, flickr, and more that add context to your social home base…and round out your brand today. But, let’s face it, there’s not going to be less out there anytime soon. It seems as if it’s often all about more. But is more better? Yesterday we were at a WordPress meetup and it was great fun. But as we were listening to the speaker (John P.), I was clicking through my feeds (silly multi-tasking blunder) and recalling that I’ve not visited so many in so long. And I’ve not been missing much.

For me, this year has to be about less consumption. Rather, consume less better. It’s about reducing the noise factor and decluttering the mind. Only filling the mind with thoughtful and useful content that is contextually relevant. And honestly that’s gonna be hard to do. It’s going to take some radical discipline.

Conversely, it’s also about contributing less, better. What’s the value of this very post I’m writing from my 3gs. Absolutely nothing if I’m not heeding my own goals here. I’m not going to stress if a week goes by and I’ve not tweeted, yammered, posted a facebook status, blogged, or attended an event or social gathering. It’s got to be about the quality of the content, or the thought, or the interaction. To actually be able to soak in a mode of thinking, to marinate in the idea. To make better.

What’s the signal to noise ratio of what we’re absorbing? What’s the signal to noise ratio of what we’re putting out there? Well, in some cases, silence is golden. Especially my own.

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