Keith Devens .com

Articles I've finally gotten around to reading

These have been floating around the web for a few days, and they're good. So check out the following articles:

Stigmergy and the World-Wide Web:

Why do memes spread so easily on the web? Why is Google's PageRank algorithm so successful? Why do Neighborhoods form? Why does communicating through a weblog work at all? What is stigmergy?

Stigmergy, a term coined by French biologist Pierre-Paul Grasse is interaction through the environment.

And now finally we get the point. The whole point of this is the connection between the web and stigmergy. The World-Wide Web is the first stimeric communication medium for humans.

The telephone and email don't count as stigmeric communication since they are only readable by the people on either end of the phone call, or the e-mail. In order for an environment to support stigmeric communciation the messages must be readable by everyone. Radio and TV don't count since they are a read-only medium as far as most people are concerned. In order for an environment to support sitgmery everyone has to be able to not only read it but to be able to write into it also.

FastCompany.com: What Should I Do With My Life:

Instead of focusing on what's next, let's get back to what's first. The previous era of business was defined by the question, Where's the opportunity? I'm convinced that business success in the future starts with the question, What should I do with my life? Yes, that's right. The most obvious and universal question on our plates as human beings is the most urgent and pragmatic approach to sustainable success in our organizations.

Your calling isn't something you inherently "know," some kind of destiny. Far from it. Almost all of the people I interviewed found their calling after great difficulty. They had made mistakes before getting it right. For instance, the catfish farmer used to be an investment banker, the truck driver had been an entertainment lawyer, a chef had been an academic, and the police officer was a Harvard MBA. Everyone discovered latent talents that weren't in their skill sets at age 25.

Most of us don't get epiphanies. We only get a whisper -- a faint urge. That's it. That's the call. It's up to you to do the work of discovery, to connect it to an answer. Of course, there's never a single right answer. At some point, it feels right enough that you choose, and the energy formerly spent casting about is now devoted to making your choice fruitful.

Permalink | Comments? | id 3297

23:41 (utc-5)