Weak Ties Experiment: Ben and Ramit

And now in the spirit of learning and discovery I offer this experiment to help prove the power of weak ties. I am going to send my "Creating and Cultivating 'Weak Ties,'" post to two of my favorite bloggers, Ben Casnocha, author of My Start-Up Life: What a (Very) Young CEO Learned on His Journey Through Silicon Valley and Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You to Be Rich

I have a weak tie with Ben through Paul Berberian, a former USAFA grad who came back frequently to speak to our Management classes. It was through Paul that I learned about Ben's blog which I follow avidly. Ramit I know only through his blog. I suppose both of these are "weak" weak ties since they are one-sided, but we'll go with it for the sake of the experiment. Anyway, at this time I get on average 10-15 readers a day on my blog. My hypothesis is if I can get Ben and Ramit to link to my article either by a direct mention in their blog, delicious link, or some other means, my traffic will double for at least 3 days after their link is published simply due to the access I will receive to their blog audience. In doing so my life will be improved by more blog traffic, exposure, etc. and I will have cultivated a weak tie that could be of value in the future. Will let you know how this one turns out!

New Comments Platform: Intense Debate

Readers of Schaefer's Blog,

I have decided to add Intense Debate to the blog as a new way of doing comments. If you haven't signed up for an account I highly recommend it. Intense Debate allows users to track their comments, have one place to save them all no matter what blog they commented on, gain reputations based on the quality of comments, and thread comments together. If you would rather not use this feature simply click cancel and post your comments as you normally would.

I've seen this used on some other blogs I read like BrianReeseBlogs and it makes comments much more dynamic, allowing good content to stand out. Please let me know if you have problems with the new platform or questions. Thanks

www.lifehacker.com

I stumbled across the most incredible website last month: www.lifehacker.com. This site is full of tips on about anything you could think of...mostly tech related, but various other topics as well. For example, today's page features the following content: 1) Ten Great Wines for $10 or Less 2) Use Your Cameraphone as a Visual To-Do List 3) Practical Applications for Dental Floss 4) A Look at Amazon MP3....and that is only a few of millions. Last week I tweeked my iTunes equalizer to the "perfect" setting that I found in an article posted on the site by someone who spent a great deal of time finding the best sounding setting. A friend built his own laser using a Do-It-Yourself guide to what else...building your own laser. Easy to search and always interesting this site will keep you occupied for days on end...enjoy friends!

86th Time's a Charm!

I've always been the type of person that believes in keeping a journal. There's something very romantic about it, the idea that one can narrate his life through the years and at the end of the day have a nice little...uh...narrative. I recently added "The Reagan Diaries" to my wish list on Amazon.com; it seems like we have quite a fascination with people's diaries...MTV had a show for a while called Diary, I'm not sure if its still on...I remember it started with a line saying, "You may think you know, but you have no idea." Very mysterious indeed. Of course my boyhood hero Doogie Howser M.D. kept a diary on his personal computer...very avant-garde at the time. As a young person I remember the fascination with reading other people's diaries to find out who they liked, brothers would steal their big sister's diaries to use as bargaining chips during intense conflicts...I didn't grow up with any brothers or sisters, but this is what Hollywood taught me.

ANYway, I still have a fascination with the idea of recording everyday life....thus, the blog. I have journaled off and on for much of my life....I go in streaks normally of about a month or two with year long gaps in between. Then, once I come back to the journal I always regret not journaling in so long and attempt an extensive multi-page summary of all the events missed during my time off...sometimes its fun, other times pure torture.

This blog will not replace my journal (that's private of course...I wonder if Reagen knew his "private" diary would one day be on the NY Times Bestseller list), but I am excited at the idea of having a medium to think out loud and let some of my friends see and think aloud with me. Ideas aren't much fun unless you can discuss them among friends.