9 thoughts on “The hive mind”

  1. I’ve encountered the same conundrum, and haven’t found a way to describe it. It takes a lot of work to develop the “database” necessary to understand the aggregate. I don’t think anyone has see me without a book or laptop at hand in six or seven years. It takes a minimum read of at least forty-five or fifty thousand words a day.

    I’ve compared it to my students as an effort on par with the pursuit of a graduate or doctoral degree (I have a Masters).

  4. Maybe you are the character who appears near the beginning of any disaster movie or horror flick, who frowns for the audience and says, “Hmm, that’s odd.”

  6. In addition to describing ‘what you do” I would focus on getting across a few key concepts :

    1. There are alternatives beyond what is typically present in mainstream media.
    2. Your life often goes in directions you could not have anticipated
    3. Being broadly educated and informed is a good thing
    4. Give an example of “information” being critical to democracy – what % of federal budget goes to military vs foreign aid vs pbs (without getting partisan). Or “how many political parties are there”.

    I like the comment by “Doo” .. you “Rage against the machine”.
    Which brings to mind the quote that the job of a journalist is to “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”.

    er

  8. Say you’re a blogger and independent journalist. Interviewer. Some one with the time, inclination, and talent to listen — to keep those in power honest… or to write about their shortcomings. You’re one of the checks and balances in the periphery of the system. There are “inside” and “outside” journalists. You are a Beltway and Mainline outsider. But there are hundreds of us who follow you. Now then, if you could just monetize that…

Comments are closed.