Comments on: On Listening

By: David

David — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:13:42 +0000

Here’s an interesting new study suggesting that blogging about your social problems and receiving comments is more therapeutic than writing them in a private journal – which suggests that knowing someone is listening is crucial to achieving the benefits of expression:

http://mobile.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/02/01/teen_mental_health_may_benefit_from_blog_comments_.html

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 03:46:22 +0000

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721_pf.html

One of the world’s best musicians playing some of the world’s best music — during morning rush hour in a metro station. Will people listen? Can people really even hear it?

By: David

David — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:57:39 +0000

Here’s another interesting angle on the value of being listened to:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/06/ff_alcoholics_anonymous/

As for the [12] steps themselves, there is evidence that the act of public confession—enshrined in the fifth step—plays an especially crucial role in the recovery process. When AA members stand up and share their emotionally searing tales of lost weekends, ruined relationships, and other liquor-fueled low points, they develop new levels of self-awareness. And that process may help reinvigorate the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that is gravely weakened by alcohol abuse.

In other words: telling people about your debauched nights can help you see them in a different light than when you just think about them, helping you reframe your actions in a way that can lead to alcohol addiction recovery.

By: Ed Smith

Ed Smith — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:58:06 +0000

Wonderful article, just wonderful. I make my living around interviewing so I really appreciate the issues that were brought out here. As much as the article touched on things an interviewer needs to do more of, we need to remind ourselves that our audience will not move up the skill ladder like we do. As was touched on in the article, audiences are getting less and less attentive. I believe that in the future, interview segments will get shorter and shorter due to the need to please an audience with a short attention span. Also not all interviewees will go along with this increased listening ability. Can you imagine a politician being interviewed by Ira Glass? Not going to happen. They don’t want you to really listen. As I said, this was a great article, so my comments are not meant to take anything away from it. Thanks, Ed Smith http://www.conductknockoutbroadcastinterviews.com/blog/

By: David

David — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:32:16 +0000

Update: Bradley Manning has officially been charged. If convicted he faces 52 years in prison. (For the record, the guys who shot the kids have not been charged yet.)

By: melon

melon — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 01:51:05 +0000

Can’t say that there’s anything I’d disagree with in here. Great article.

Be mindful that even the best content needs effective advertising, so that’s probably more to do as to why readership is not what it should be.

By: David

David — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:24:06 +0000

The irony of the fact that nobody is reading this is not lost on me. I put this out to the Internet — for free — and the only compensation I get is in the form of attention. It was hard for me to remain impartial writing this, when it is, on some level, a lament.

There’s another angle I could have explored here: the idea of the signal-to-noise ratio. There’s so much stuff on the Internet that just sifting through it is a full-time job; even if there’s something that appeals to you, the reader, it still faces the nearly insurmountable problem of finding its way to you first.

And then there’s the crap. And 95% of everything is crap.