I have this incredibly strong gut sense that everything is about to get a lot better for everyone and that somehow social media is a big piece of it. The case for optimism.
The irony, on many levels, is that other than creating a few social media accounts, I’ve done next to nothing with it, and I’ve found all sorts of justifications for my social media indifference:
- It’s not Clever Zebo’s business focus
- Social networks make people unhappy
- I’ve been plenty successful with phone and email, thank you very much
- The social media industrial complex privacy conspiracy
That’s all code for: I’m afraid. The refrain replays in my brain: “I can’t reveal too much, or something bad will happen to me.”
But WHY will something bad happen to me? What have I done wrong? What will you all find out (and despise) when I drop the filter and just let it flow?
I’m coming around to the view that transparent living is a big part of the solution to human suffering. The more transparency in a system, the more opportunity there is for accountability and debate. Corruption is when a system prioritizes personal gain over transparency.
Yes, there are all the unknowns and vulnerabilities of suddenly going extremely public, but the water’s never as cold as it looks from the dock (except when it is?).
So how to jump in?
In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell posits that the key to success in any field is 10,000 hours of practice. To jump in, I’m replacing “hours” with “actions.” An action is any post, share, reply, etc. that is public to access.
My goal is to get to 10,000 actions by the end of year which seems pretty much unattainable, both because that’s over 100 actions per day, every day but also because I haven’t found a good action counting analytics tool (recommendation in comments, please).
Why does volume matter? Don’t I risk annoying people?
The specific number is arbitrary. It is large, though, as a tribute to the future in which I believe superior input interfaces and inter-connectivity will make us laugh at 100 actions per day the way we laugh today about early computers with 4KB memory.
What do I personally get out of this?
1. To join the global conversation. Brilliant people are building the tools to empower my participation. Participate, Josh.
2. The more I influence and understand social media, the more value I can bring to my clients.
3. It’s a small step toward a much bigger vision.
4. I’m curious what it would be like to be (embarrassing revelation alert) famous. (Still not clear how this will make me famous, but it has a better shot than watching Breaking Bad for the third time through.)
5. There’s a certain person whose name I dare not mention but who has promised to shave his head when I surpass his Twitter following (50K+) — really want that one
6. I’ve observed that what matters in social is growth rate, not necessarily starting point or current volume. Coming from near-zero, I can hit high virality acceleration quickly.
So what are the details?
Duration: Oct. 1 12AM – Dec. 31 11:59:59PM (PST)
Launch party: #freedonuts 10/1 8:30 AM Montgomery + Market
Networks that qualify: Any social media, news or publishing platform that enable public posting at no cost to the consumer
Follow me at @joshuakrafchin to stay in the loop.
Experiment Design Brief
What can you do?
Pay attention as much as you can stomach. There’s no pressure to do anything. Any amount of support is deeply appreciated. Whether you’ve yet to create a Twitter profile or a have millions of followers, join me. The idea is to do it together.
Causes I’m promoting
– End all violence and mistreatment, especially against other humans.
– Promote Web X.0 literacy.
– Happiness, fulfillment and self-love for all.
– Goodbye fear, hello world.
Game on.