The good and bad of unplugging
Classmates.com is fascinating. New people, new problems to solve, and a opportunity so big it -- well, it's big. I've been so caught up in it, I've largely unplugged from every other connection. There's good and bad in that.
The good is this: unplug for a little while and when you come back you have what feels like a more objective view. The kool-aide wears off. You also see how much you haven't missed. For instance, I was sorry to see that my network registered no new or interesting social networking ideas. Some folks from Yahoo published some useful work on planning recognition systems, but it's hardly ground-breaking (in fact it seems to gloss over whole classes of rewards -- intimacy and exclusivity). It appears to me that the Facebook/MyYearbook/twitter/chocolate/vanilla daytime dramas have lulled the industry to sleep. Whatever.
The bad is that I've missed some of the genuinely interesting things my network produces. Alex, as usual, has come up with a gem of a book recommendation. He recommends I Am a Strange Loop.
I just downloaded the Kindle Edition. (Yes, I love my Kindle -- love it.)
It's also become apparent that I'm not likely to find the time to solve my community server comments/spam issue. No comments sucks. So, it might be time for a change. This site will remain a repository for all of my posts, but I think I need another, more public, outlet. LiveJournal?
