Introduce yourselves

August 17th, 2009 by Hang

One of the hardest things about writing this blog is the feeling of talking into a void. I know there are people out there reading it because I can see the analytics data but it still feels lonely writing. So I’m going to experiment with a semi-regular feature where you, the readers respond.

Post a comment with how you found out about this blog, why you read it and also if there’s any particular area you’d like me to cover more.

As an added incentive , I’ll be donating 25 cents to charity for every person that responds. If you feel particularly strongly about any one charity, put that also in the comments.

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Also featured in blogs: Figuring Shit Out
| Comments (13)

  • Shalmanese

    I'll start things off. I'm Hang and I'm the author.

    My charity of choice is the ACLU.

  • Lewix

    Do you plan to give money to charity for your comment too ?
    Anyway, I think I came across the blog while searching for something about Facebook. The design was nice, and the content was interesting so I added it to my feed reader (yeah, incidentally that got rid of the design).

  • Shalmanese

    Yup, I'm priming the pot so to speak.

  • http://twitter.com/willischroll Willi Schroll

    how I came here? this was a classical hyperlink thing of old-fashioned web …
    I read your comment here:
    http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/08/16/the-tragic…
    so links in comments do pay :)

    Concerning the blogging dilemma (anyone out there?) this reminds me of a good point I read yesterday: “our attention is spread so thin these days”

    quote concerning twitter use:
    “It [twitter] appeals to the reptilian part of the brain, I think. It’s an alpha male thing, having followers. When you’re broadcasting, you get to think people are paying attention, and who doesn’t like attention? But our attention is spread so thin these days that the portion devoted to something as minor as a tweet may as well be none at all. Broadcasting may console the ego, but it’s false consolation. What it is a surrogate for (meaningful attention) can’t be gotten that way.”

    http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/17/why-i-dont…
    What a provoking topic! 531 Comments there up to now!!!

    Solution? Realize that there is a tiny group of alphas. Seek your equilibrium in tweeting and blogging, adjust from time to time. E.g. I produce less blog posts than in the past, esp. when very busy with projects – but I don't let my blog die, why should I?

    http://blog.futurefacts.net/

  • http://www.bleedingfiction.com/ Jasön

    Hi, I'm Jason, and I'm from the internet.

    I found the blog because you pointed me here, as I'm a friend of yours in real life. I read it partly for that reason – I like seeing what my friends are up to, intellectually, and I imagine that they want me to be part of that conversation. Partly it's also because your blog gives me a window into a world I don't usually take part in – the whole design-space, HCI thing – and I like the occasional culture shock that comes with that.

    I'd like you to donate my 25c here: http://www.pkdcure.org/. Though it's worth mentioning publicly, as I did in person, that 25c is a bit crap. Small change, as it were. Hell, you did $20 a day you missed for your 30 Day Experiment; I can see that comments here might be worth less than that, but only a quarter? That's half a game of pool right there.

  • oso

    Hi Hang. I came to your blog for the first time back in June when you wrote about “The killer app for iPhone 3GS”. I was doing some research for this year's Ars Electronica symposium, which I am co-curating with Chinese blogger Isaac Mao. I also agree that statistics should be the foundation of math education (I hate it when journalists use statistics incorrectly in their reporting) and I related to a lot of what you wrote in “The no obnoxious rich people paradox.” So I've stayed subscribed. The funny thing is, you're one of the few blogs I follow that I don't know how to classify. I have you in my “technology” folder right now, but you write about much more than just tech. Which is good – I enjoy the diversity of thought.

  • http://www.facebook.com/xianhang Xianhang Zhang

    Hi oso, it's an enormous compliment to me that you don't know how to classify this blog. Part of the reason for starting it was because I couldn't find this type of blog out there anywhere.

  • DrBudro

    I was reading an article called The Lazy Evil Genius that was submitted to the Philosophy Reddit which linked to your “No Evil Geniuses Theory”. Now I'm reading through your 30 day experiment posts and subscribed to your RSS feed. =)

    -Budro

  • naveen

    just came across this blog..havent read much..but liked the theory of societies adopting innovation using the paperclip model. ..would like to read such analysis and theories.
    good work..
    -Naveen

  • Bheema V.

    9 comments? What is the conversion rate?

    And two new comments within the day, after all this time. Who would have thought? Did someone link in recently?

  • abdusalaam

    Just landed here via a link on http://indiauncut.com/ to read the entire post on three types of passion, which by the way is an awesome post. Looking around to see if I should bookmark this blog for regular read. Haven't decided yet.

    Oh and I”m okay with ACLU.

    Abdu
    http://abdusalaam.blogspot.com

  • Sowmya Bharadwaj

    I read about the three kinds of passion from a link that was sent to my mail by a CSR link that i follow. Its a great blog!!

  • Shae

    I came here because I couldn't sleep and found a post on reddit…
    Still not sleeping, but enjoying it more now.