Flow with the Stream

Eventually, you have to accept that you can’t keep up with everything. Google+ is just out of its wrapper, and yet 15 minutes would barely let me skim the last hour of activity, let alone the links and comments. For reference, the bar on the right is a condensed version of my unexpanded stream from just the last hour.

This is more philosophical than tactical, but you have to let it go. The real-time stream is just that – jump in, swim forward, and don’t worry too much about what’s behind you. If it’s important, it’ll get repeated.

Social media is so real-time that it can even alienate people to rewind too much. I’ve had people comment on something I said the day before on Twitter, and it completely confused me. With Google+ and Facebook, the conversation structure is easier to manage, but past a point we move on. Right or wrong, that’s the nature of the beast.

PP: Why did you choose the Kindle instead of any of the other devices or platforms?

SG: Well, Amazon hasn’t revealed any numbers to me or to anyone about Kindle sales but it’s really obvious that the Kindle is the dominant platform for reading books. And people with iPads read books but they don’t get an iPad to read books and the impact of the iPad on book reading, I think, is small compared to the Kindle.

Very true.