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Technology & Innovation —

In Good Times and in Bad, Share

Avoid the trap of using social networks with eagerness to impress and sell. “We must simply tell our story, both the good and the bad.” Human stories resonate.
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What’s the Latest Development?

It is easy to inflate, or cover over the broken image of who we really are while using social networks, writes Geoff Talbot. Projecting a too-good-to-be-true image may produce short-terms gains, but eventually we can’t hide the truth of who we are. “It is those moments in life when we are caught off-guard—when we make a mistake or when we have to apologize—that really engage other people.”

What’s the Big Idea?

Talbot’s advice is:

  • Tweet about your accidents and mistakes. (Don’t have to over-do it, but show your humanity.)
  • Blog about your disappointments and failures. (Include what you learned or wished you had known beforehand.)
  • Ask for help. (Reach out for ideas, solutions, and moral support. Engage your social media audience… When they know you are sincere, 99.9% of people will do anything to help.)
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    It’s plain to see that I’m an optimist, sometimes more than is socially comfortable. The ease with which I dismiss the disastrous economic decline above serves as one example of that. I wrote that the recession will benefit our political system, and, before I cut this line, as having “rewarded our company for methodical execution and ruthless efficiency by removing competitors from the landscape.” I make no mention of the disastrous effects on millions of people, and the great uncertainty that grips any well-briefed mind, because it truly doesn’t stand in the foreground of my mind (despite suffering personal loss of wealth). Our species is running towards a precipice with looming dangers like economic decline, political unrest, climate crisis, and more threatening to grip us as we jump off the edge, but my optimism is stronger now than ever before. On the other side of that looming gap are extraordinary breakthroughs in healthcare, communications technology, access to space, human productivity, artistic creation and literally hundreds of fields. With the right execution and a little bit of luck we’ll all live to see these breakthroughs — and members of my generation will live to see dramatically lengthened life-spans, exploration and colonization of space, and more opportunity than ever to work for passion instead of simply working for pay. Instead of taking this space to regale you with the many personal and focused changes I intend to make in 2009, let me rather encourage you to spend time this year thinking, as I’m going to, more about what we can do in 2009 to positively affect the future our culture will face in 2020, 2050, 3000 and beyond.
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