This is going to be a short post, but I just wanted to comment on my astonishment at how much info is out on the web about blogging. Most of it is posted on blogs…go figure. I’ve search “components of blogs”, “how to start a blog”, “blog tools”, “how many blogs exist” and that’s just a starting point. It’s overwhelming and difficult to grasp was parts are really relevant.
Something that struck me though is how relevant and up-to-date with current trends can some of these posts be when many are a few years old. How old is now too old when it comes being relevant? I know the lady that works in the resource library in our facility does not keep any journals on the shelf that are more than a year old.
I can barely keep up with the constants streaming of information I receive daily through Twitter and these are just the select few people I have decided to follow. What about the thousands of others out there that are posting, tweeting, sharing their information, thoughts and ideas.
Is there a point in time that you don’t reference back past? Do you give yourself a limit as to what you pay attention too? Is there a standard that we all should be following and if so does that mean the past is irrelevant? (I dare not ask that question).
You’ll have to ask someone older than I am.
The best example I can think of is a slideshow I saw about excavations near Mosul, Iraq. Take a look at this image. Someone asked archaeologist Samuel Paley about the cuneiform at the top of the image.
I wrote down his reply:
“It’s a caption. Captions began at the end of the ninth century.”
From this I learned that if captions were good enough for Shalmaneser III, king of Assyria, they’re good enough for me.
Kia ora Tracy
I use John Cleese’s approach. I am very old and I’m going to die soon. But I want to be as up-to-date as possible when I go.
Most of what comes across my desk (and computer screen) I’ve seen or read in some form before. What I haven’t seen before usually comes across in wave-like gobs of similar material that all say the same thing.
So I do a sifting, only for what’s different (not much) that I keep and file the rest into the Recycle. When it comes to filing, I find the job is not any more extensive than it was when I was much younger.
As far as being so old that something becomes automatically irrelevant. If it’s procedural, it probably is irrelevant.
Catchya later
from Middle-earth