SxSW ’09 – Gruber & Mann – HOWTO: 149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog With Credibility! (audio mp3, free on iTunes)
Linked to above, is a talk by Merlin Mann (of 43 Folders and You Look Nice Today fame) and John Gruber (of Daring Fireball) from South by Southwest entitled “HOWTO: 149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog With Credibility!”
You may not blog or write, but I think that’s there a still some hidden gems in there for you no matter what you create. Mann and Gruber’s thesis—in my opinion—is “Be yourself, and do it awesomely.” I think there is a lot to be said for that.
The talk is an interesting treatise on how to do this whole social media thing with integrity instead of chasing after the fast cash and employing techniques that may or may not be considered douchey. As Merlin puts it, “Find what you’re obsessed with and do the shit out of it.” Highly recommended listening.
You’ve got something that you care a lot about, and you’re obsessed about — it’s almost like an intellectual fetish. Then you’ve got something that’s your angle on that. - Merlin Mann (via Glenn Wosley)
I’m going to try not to regurgitate what’s been said better by others. Instead, I’m going to give you a chance to sit down (or load it onto your iPod and take your dog for a walk like I did) and give it a chance. Tony Steward has a great outline of the talk as a reference later on. Roo Reynolds has one too.
From the South by Southwest Website:
John Gruber (DaringFireball.net) and Merlin Mann (43Folders.com) discuss the current state of blogging as a medium for creative expression, weighing the opportunities and challenges of building a thoughtful online presence in a world where everybody owns a printing press. They’ll consider the ascendance of Digg-friendly “problogs” and debate the subtler pleasures of careful writing that reaches smaller, but potentially less “profitable” audiences.
