ARI HERZOG

My Personal Blog

This Is My Last Post of 2018

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I tallied the number of blog posts I wrote this year, compared it to last year, then the prior year, and all the way back to 2007 when I started blogging. The farther back I went correlated to an increased sensation of depression that I don’t write as much now as I wrote then.

I don’t need to tell you that social media is more prominent these days and there’s less of a motivation for me to write a long-form post such as this.

Which is to not say that I don’t want to write long-form, because I do, but because it’s silly to write out a rambling brainstorm such as this sentence instead of chopping my thoughts into bite-size portions on Twitter and other media.

This got me thinking that I want to write more and keep people here. I suppose I should also incorporate grammatical structures that WordPress allows and that social media does not.

For instance…

Wouldn’t you rather read a simple block of text on your mobile phone via your favorite social media platform than scrolling down a blog post to ascertain if the person has a point?

What if I wrote in bold letters?

What if I underlined my words?

What if I wrote in italics?

Would your attention span increase? I’m not going to write in bold or other formats merely to increase your attention because that’s a silly reason for me to write and for you to follow along.

  • Ditto for bullet lists.
  • There is a reason for using bullets.
  • This example is not that reason.

I’ll use lists to make a point, not for the sake of using them.

This is what I know for 2019…

I’ll write more.

I’ll write with a purpose.

I’ll incorporate visual features to capture your attention.

And I’ll end my posts with a request for comments, social shares, and/or mental memories to return here for more.

Connect to People You Know

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That’s the philosophy of Christina Milanowski in a LinkedIn conversation about why people connect with each other on social media sites.

She elaborates why she connects with people: “My rule of thumb [on LinkedIn] is that I’ve met them in person or connected with them in the past and I could remember how if asked,” adding that her Facebook friendship strategy is if she’d recognize the person on the street and say hi.

Online friendship is simple: If you know a person, invite him, her, or it to connect to you online. From there, the relationship can continue.

Frozen in Time

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My LinkedIn network includes over 2,000 people; but most of them only know me through my past. They remember me as a social media consultant, or a government manager, or a teacher, or a classmate. They don’t necessarily know who I am today or where I want to be tomorrow.

Carol Fishman Cohen describes this concept as being “frozen in time.” Simply stated, it’s when people from your past only know your past.

Whether you embraced a new career direction, started a family, or took on new responsibilities, if the people from your past aren’t aware of who you are today, then their perspective of you is dated.

The barrier shows itself when I reach out to John or Sally for a referral or recommendation, and we quickly recognize that neither of knows the other as we want to be known today. We are living in the other’s past. We are frozen in time.

I want people to know where I’m living, what I’m doing with my life, and where I see myself in five years. I’m slowly reaching out to those LinkedIn connections (and others spread across social media) to tell them my story and build upon our past relationship to create something new.

But The Unemployment Rate is Low

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Yes, we are witnessing a national unemployment rate that is at its lowest point since 1969. But that doesn’t mean that everyone who is unemployed (or underemployed, like me) will get hired tomorrow. The job search process today is no different than in the past.

As I recently commented on LinkedIn, I’ve been underemployed for a year. The low unemployment rate only means that employers and recruiters are more specific in their needs. Do you want to know how many perfect vacancies met my criteria, how I met all of their qualifications, but because I lacked experience in a particular industry, even though the job function is the same in every industry, I was told I wouldn’t be considered?

Moreover, if I apply to a vacancy announcement via an online submission form that uses an Applicant Tracking System, I need to ensure that 99% of keywords and phrases in the job description are also in my resume and cover letter — and that laborious effort doesn’t necessitate an interview.

 

Goodbye Feedblitz, Hello WordPress Feed

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If you want to read many blogs and don’t want to remember to manually bookmark and visit them in a browser, you can opt to subscribe via email or RSS.

Subscribing by email is easy: You submit a form with your email address, confirm you want to opt in, and you will receive an email message every time your favorite blogger publishes a new post.

Subscribing by RSS is different: You use a web application and add the blog’s feed to your app. Here’s a 2018 Wired article about RSS readers.

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Here on AriHerzog.com, over 500 people choose to receive my posts by email. Here’s a link to the signup form.

Another 500 receive my posts by RSS. I wrote in 2011 about paying Feedblitz to deliver my posts to your preferred reader. But, due to that company now charging pricing tiers that don’t fit my needs, and cognizant that WordPress has a built-in feed address, I’m leaving Feedblitz and you can add this feed instead.

I’m guessing the majority of you reading this sentence would prefer an email subscription. But, if you’re into RSS and feed reading that way, you now have a new feed. Thanks again for participating in my online community.

Walking Around In Their Shoes

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“You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them,” said Atticus Finch.

Through his daughter Scout’s memories about her prepubescent childhood in the racially segregated Deep South of the 1930s, I feel like I’ve walked around in the shoes of lots of characters.

That’s what a wonderful book imparts to the reader: that you’re not merely reading words on a page but that you’re entering someone’s life and sharing their shoes.

It took me months to read the 323 pages of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and I finally forced myself this morning to read the final 150 pages in one sitting including the above quote from the second-to-last page.

I don’t know why I didn’t read the novel sooner. It was never assigned reading material in high school or college; and when I graduated both, I was never inspired to pick it up. Roaming the library at the beginning of this summer, I made a choice and checked it out.

That was a good choice.