“When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.”
What is the Internet hiding from you?
More than you might think. In this short but sweet presentation at TED, Eli Pariser reveals that the major search engines, content aggregators and portals are filtering what you see on an unprecedented level.
Pariser argues very effectively that we're passing the torch from human editors to computer algorithms that end up providing not what we should see, but what we want to see.
You're Doing It Wong Part 2: Consistency Breeds Consistency
In part 1 of this series, we talked about how the one rule for successful content is 'What do you genuinely enjoy making?' In other words, don't try to be something that you're not. Create content that you're passionate about, and you will find people who share that passion.
Today I want to expand on that idea a little more and reveal another secret that Freddie Wong has also hit upon. It is both the single hardest and the single easiest thing about building a website through rich content, and yet it is something that eludes probably 95% of all websites that are setting out to do what you're doing.
You're Doing It Wong Part 1: The One Rule for Content
Filmmaker Freddie Wong is one of those Internet success stories that really make you sit up and take notice. Manager of Los Angeles-based media production company Overcrank Media, Freddie made a name for himself producing extremely creative short action films, many of which went viral (one of my favorites that always makes me laugh is Fire Hands).
Recently, after exceeding over one million subscribers in one year on his YouTube channel, Freddie wrote an excellent article sharing some of the secrets he learned in his meteoric rise. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be expanding some of his fantastic points in greater detail. The first concept I want to talk about today is, I think, the best answer I've ever seen to the questions, "What should I write about? What type of content should I post to my website?"
In Defense of Metaphors
I have to say that there's an awful lot of hot air on the Internet... and despite our name, we really aren't in the business of making more of it. Clarity is often endangered by overly colorful writing.
Design as Business Ideology
Tim Brown, President and CEO of Ideo, is quoted as saying this in a recent Fast Company article:
"Teams in business will be thinking about problems as design problems and tackling them like designers. Good design is the output of good design thinking, and companies will be looking to apply design thinking in many places where it hasn't been applied before. These are the methods and approaches that designers use to solve problems, such as understanding and anticipating user needs, prototyping to evolve ideas, and using storytelling to bring ideas to life....
A vision
For a few moments of your time, I would like to invite you to share a vision with me.
Imagine, if you will, that you are standing in a very dark room. Stretching away from you in every direction are hundreds of glowing lines, crisscrossing and connecting with each other in millions of ways. Below your feet is a small intersection where many lines meet.
Almost thirty years in the making, the river Beautiful will be published as a premium hardcover, a value softcover, and a very special online multimedia experience.
Select a chapter below to view exclusive content from the upcoming collection of new and selected works by Jason Christopher Hackwith.
original prose, poetry, lyrics, illustrations and typography
