Every once in a while I’ll read something that gives me a swift (but helpful) kick in the butt. Such was the case with Kathy Sierra’s post on the Creating Passionate Users Blog: “How to be an Expert.” She points out that in order to be an expert one needs to be dedicated enough to make it through both the fun elements and the difficult details of their field. Sierra argues that neuroscience suggests that the truly successful are not merely “naturals” who started at a young age but are the people who were willing to suck it up and fight through the challenges. She points out:

Most of us want to practice the things we’re already good at, and avoid the things we suck at. We stay average or intermediate amateurs forever.

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In this entry I discuss the fine line between convenience and sharing too much online. In particular, I’m following up to my entry on social bookmarking…something handy but potentially revealing. In the very end, I also point out how the same can apply to posting reviews on Amazon, using online support forums, and other seemingly innocuous online activities.

I began using del.icio.us and ma.gnolia to keep track of articles I’ve enjoyed. While in the past I had used browser bookmarks for pages to which I knew I’d return, these sites offered convenient ways to maintain a richly searchable history of what’s interested me over time. However, I immediately found myself debating how to describe my entries and which entries I tagged…

Let me first explain why I began using both del.icio.us and ma.gnolia. For a long time now I’ve consciously separated my business and personal activities online. I have different email addresses, websites, screennames, and now bookmark lists. Don’t get me wrong, someone can easily find the other me online, but I’d rather them search for it than dangle it under their nose.

Today I was reading a great article in the Washington Post on a religiously-charged topic. I was about to tag the article to my personal bookmark list, but realized Continue reading…

The Washington Post published an article today that reaffirms an idea I’ve been spreading for a while to my peers: blogs serve as an efficient and powerful tool for businesses to stay informed within their industry. The article primarily discussed the use of Nielsen BuzzMetrics to track trends, but it lent more credibility to the blogosphere as a whole.

One of the article’s interesting points was that blogs may offer the best gauge of customer sentiment given that they’re often “gut-level and spontaneous.” Why it is that HP needed blog-metrics to recognize this particular opinion is beyond me, but I’m glad something clued them in:

Hewlett-Packard, the computer and technology company, lately has picked up from cyberspace that customers really hate leaving their computers at shops for repairs; far better, the company learned, is having technicians repair the machines in homes. “What that makes us do is that when we think about investing more in that area, we say, yes, it’s positive to do that,” said Rickey Ono, business strategy manager for HP. “We drill into the individual comments and it helps to justify our expenditure on in-home repair.”

The article also served as fodder for a program I’m presenting at the Maryland State Bar Association’s Annual Meeting in June 2006, “Relax: It’s time to Outsmart your Peers with RSS.” I hope to offer some ideas to business professionals on how they can stay informed by better utilizing RSS and other technologies related to blogs. Continue reading…

I’d been slow to adopt del.icio.us, a free social bookmarking site that’s been popular for a couple years now. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, here’s more information on what del.icio.us is. Here’s why I told myself I didn’t need del.icio.us (I disagree now):

1. I have no needs for bookmarking beyond what’s provided by the web browser (addressed in recommendation 3 below)
2. Why would I want to share my links with others? (addressed in recommendations 5 & 6)
3. I have too much stuff to keep track of already, especially online (addressed in recommendation 7)

What I didn’t realize is that del.icio.us makes browsing more efficient and research more productive. Can it be distracting to find more things to click on? Sure, but the results are often better than just searching google.

Here’s why I recommend del.icio.us: Continue reading…

Today Apple announced one more product in a long line of tools built to capitalize upon and further the success of their iPods. The iPod Hi-Fi was announced as a high quality compact speaker system that serves as a docking station for their iPods. It’s portable, it works with the Apple Remote, and it serves some value for people who want everything to look Mac-minimalist… But even the least technically-inclined have found easy ways to play their music at home, especially since they have a synchronized copy of their music in iTunes or other music software. This is nothing revolutionary.

What I’d like to see is a synchronized iPod car stereo. I’ll explain to you first what I see out there now and then offer what I believe would make the most sense…

Apple has done an excellent job of partnering with car manufacturers and car stereo companies to sell their proprietary iPod integration technology for cars. It allows for some decent controls, and the better models even provide artist information on the stereo screen. But it’s a far way off from the interface of iTunes or the iPod itself. They also require that you have your iPod with you.

A better idea would be to have a car stereo that synchronizes with your iPod, much like iTunes, and then offers a iPod or iTunes-like interface. Let’s just call it iCarTunes for the sake of the argument. People would still need to connect their iPod with their car stereo from time to time to update the car, but they’d have most of their music available when they haven’t synchronized. This would accomplish a number of objectives: Continue reading…

…or at least it felt that way. You see, I pride myself on having a fairly extensive vocabulary, which occasionally leads to my being pleonastic or pedantic…but nonetheless I’ve always enjoyed richness in words (such as that discussed in the Word Nerds podcast). Anyhow, today I came across a flattering dialog box in Microsoft Word:

For thirty seconds I considered the possibility that Word was not in err and that I had in fact exceeded its capacity for vocabulary. Continue reading…

If I had to point to one reason why business is good, I’d guess it’s because of planting lots of seeds. Very rarely has anything been immediately successful for me, but taking my time without pushing too hard has proven to work. As this has been an important lesson for me and as I’d like part of this blog to focus on business ideas, I want to share a little bit.

When I started my business I knew no one: my family was elsewhere, my previous local jobs were in government (the government is another world, let me just say), and my friends were too young to really help. So I did what I did in school to make friends–join lots of groups and volunteer your time. At first it was difficult to walk into room trying to sell myself, knowing no one, and being unable to offer much in return. But over time those casual acquaintances turned into real relationships.

Specifically, I Continue reading…

By now you’ve probably used Search & Replace in Word, and you may have even tried some of the advanced tools within it. However, as an efficiency trainer, I get to see that there’s a huge difference between those who use this tool versus those who have mastered it. The result of mastery? A heck of a lot of frustration and time saved. Maybe even some bragging rights. But enough talk…

Tip 1. Don’t perform a “Replace All.”

Inevitably there’s going to be something that doesn’t fit a pattern. You have two choices, you can refine your search (see below) to a more specific term (which is a good idea, but can be time consuming) or you can take the extra 20 seconds to review each item before replacing it. And, for the record, you don’t need to keep pressing Find and then Replace. By merely pressing Replace (or better yet, pressing R on the keyboard!), Word will move you between each selection and then replace it. A quick glance before each replacement will ensure much more accurate search & replaces.

Tip 2. Refine your searches

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What software do you love? Jensen Harris, an outspoken Microsoft Office developer, posed this question in his blog last week…and I wasn’t altogether surprised by the responses. In particular, most people loved the nifty, focused tools that make their life easier. No one mentioned Microsoft Word or Outlook, which might strike you as odd–given that the respondents participate in a blog dedicated to the development of Microsoft software. In this post I’ll offer my suspicions for people’s choices and at the same time give Microsoft a little more credit.

Everyone loves their focused software tools, and I chimed in with some of my favorites like hoekey, Firefox, and OneNote. Along the same vein and more in line with others’ responses I could’ve mentioned little apps like KeyTweak, Who Lock Me?, and TotalCopy. What do most of these programs have in common? They’re mostly small utilities that you haven’t heard of. What do all of them have in common? They’re all focused on specific tasks, and all the larger tools improved upon something that could be done (albeit messily, perhaps) using some of the more popular applications. Continue reading…

A blog is something that can start on a whim, but in the end it takes discipline and the support of an audience. I’ve been writing online for over five years now on a personal website, but in the last few months I’ve been gearing up to write on the more technical and business-oriented topics that have interested me in the last couple years. By “gearing up” I mean that I’ve researched and, in turn, been humbled by my peers. Some things I considered writing about that were already well-covered:

• I already write a tip and tool every month, but more regular entries here still wouldn’t compete with the likes of Lifehacker or Steve Bass.
• In my personal site I’ve occasionally tackled business reflections, but I have hardly the experience or sagacity of Guy Kawasaki or Art Jacoby.
• And, by the nature of my career I considered titling this site “rockmyword.com” and showing off the area where I’m arguably most expert–Microsoft Office. However there are many sites on all-things-Office, such as Office Zealot and that of my colleague and coworker Shauna Kelly.

So why write?

Last week I was working with a client, going through Office tricks… Continue reading…