One thing I’ve found in the past year is there is sometimes a huge disconnect between people who make noise on blogs, or might have impressive blogs themselves, and productivity in the real world. It’s unfortunate, because it makes it that much harder to find good folks. (26)
Matt, couldn’t be more dead on.
Yes, people who are often quiet about speaking are not shy, they’re just busy getting real work done.
Unless you approach your blog as part of your job, i.e., the marketing and networking opportunities it provides. That only fits in with a small portion of job types however.
But yeah, it happens in the outerweb as well, many people talk big, few do big.
Matt, you’ve hit the nail on the head. It’s quite interesting to remember that “all the good programmers” are employed, which someone told me when I was interviewing someone a few years back, which was some food for thought.
It’s a tough line to follow. I think there’s a huge correlation between active blogging (researched post a day) versus work ethic / getting work done, but in your industry blogging is relevant to the job because it means they’ll each their own dog food.
Interesting observation. Of course what is it that marks one as productive? That’s an important consideration…
In Texas the saying is “All hat, no cattle.”
Lots of truth in your statement. There are very very few bloggers, though, that discuss what they do, exactly. My own reading of blogs tends to be more focused on getting a sense of who the writer is, like a slice of reality television. Finding blogs where I read things of interest, learn, am entertained or inspired, or glimpse a sense of kinship, is a positive thing, but tertiary at best to what a particular blog author’s abilities are in RL. Personal relationships also, including working ones, have interactions, rhythms and processes that aren’t reflected in unilateral publishing.
Good folks have always been hard to come by. Guess the web hasn’t changed that.
Vera
Funny - I blogged about the same concept today. A quote from Robert Greenleaf (http://www.greenleaf.org/) fits as well today in the blogosphere as it did back when he first wrote it. The quote is:
“We live in a veritable babel of communication, much of it originated by hucksters in pursuit of a fast buck rather than by those who carefully weigh what is important to say. Far too much of it is put forth by plausible, intelligent, and articulate people who are both entertaining and titillating, but whose words do not leave an impact of pithy*, significant ideas.”
“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. And those who can do neither, blog.” Or at least that’s what it sometimes seems to be.
I’m new enough to blogging that its a constant struggle to write something relevant and interesting to read. But the things that others write and comment on can be instructive. Thanks for being relevant and helpful!
You see this sort of thing in most online communities - vocal minority, quiet majority.
Excellent observation and very true. I’m actually a bit tired of the whole seo rockstars concepts. Half of them are actually good, the other half just think they are.
Yup, real developers are too busy getting some Real Work done. Heh.
There is sometimes a huge disconnect between politicians who look the part but turn out to be jerks, there is sometimes a huge disconnect between people who talk a good game and actually can produce in business, brilliant advertising vs poor product, great publicity lousy movie … online just matches the real world, surely you have worked that out by now?
Right on Matt, and Joshua, you said it well. Personally, I look at all the activity in the blog-world (within our community), and I wonder where everyone finds the time. I blog once in a while, and I contribute once in a while… but 65 hours a week only gets me so far:) I do appreciate the people who make the time… it’s good for the industry to have smart, reputable people out there.
I would be very interested to hear the perspective from the “headline bloggers” in terms of the overall ROI they recognize from the time spent blogging and on the message boards.
I agree, Matt, but…not everybody blogs to entertain the crowd.
Let’s turn it around: are the people that act so busy reading other peoples blogs productive? By reading your comment, I must conclude they are not.
About finding good personnel: our company turns a lot of people down, or we fire them within their “trial period”. Sifting through CVs is even harder than reading non-productivity-increasing weblogs: CVs are boring.
I would never bother to criticize something I don’t like. 
There is sometimes a huge disconnect between politicians who look the part but turn out to be jerks,
Where’s the disconnect there?
It annoys me that 20 people commented on a line of text which doesn’t actually mean anything.
well, these people think blogging itself is a product. the only other people who agree with the them are other people who also believe blogging is a product. this is why they call it the echochamber.
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