Comments on: The power of an audience https://onlineaspect.com/2012/07/25/the-power-of-an-audience/ building stuff on the web with Josh Fraser Sun, 29 Jul 2012 00:44:29 +0000 hourly 1 By: joshfraz https://onlineaspect.com/2012/07/25/the-power-of-an-audience/comment-page-1/#comment-4748 Sun, 29 Jul 2012 00:44:29 +0000 https://onlineaspect.com/?p=1413#comment-4748 In reply to Justin.

Thanks for adding some great perspective, Justin. You always have great things to contribute to expand my thinking. I dug up that commencement speech you mentioned (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lfxYhtf8o4). Great quote!

I didn't set out to build an audience. I started blogging because I wanted to share what I was learning with other people and give back to the community. I started working on open source for the same altruistic reasons. Focusing on building an audience would probably be a bad way to get one. There are few things more annoying that someone yelling "hey, look at me". It's valuable to have an audience, but the way you get there is by giving not taking.

]]> By: Justin https://onlineaspect.com/2012/07/25/the-power-of-an-audience/comment-page-1/#comment-4745 Sat, 28 Jul 2012 15:42:46 +0000 https://onlineaspect.com/?p=1413#comment-4745 I agree that having an audience is really cool. But I think it's worth mentioning that the power of an audience, like all power, has the ability to corrupt. The audience can become the ends instead of the means, and soon we're doing things just to brag about them. The feeling underlying your friend's objection that no one should care what he is eating for lunch is humility. With your life properly in perspective, he is right: no one should. There was a commencement speech that went viral a couple months ago that ended with an admonishment towards selflessness. It encouraged students to "climb [the mountain] so you can see the world, not so the world can see you." I think this is good advice.

Some folks actively resist building an audience because they know the temptation towards pride that comes along with them. I can respect their decision. Many (in fact I would guess most) people join Twitter not to build an audience, but to connect with their already existing friends. In my opinion, this is the real power of social networks–strengthening already existing relationships–because there are hard limits on how much someone will sacrifice for someone they follow on Twitter but do not know personally. I wrote about this here: http://guessworktheory.blogspot.com/2010/10/socia…

Thanks for the insight into your decision to have a blog. Enjoyed it.

]]> By: Brett https://onlineaspect.com/2012/07/25/the-power-of-an-audience/comment-page-1/#comment-4734 Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:32:37 +0000 https://onlineaspect.com/?p=1413#comment-4734 Good reason! Thanks for sharing.

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