December 4, 2025

Being Different, Part 7: The Plain of Mastery

In Part 6 of this series, I described how one becomes a true master of a skill — by putting in around 10,000 hours (or nearly five years of full-time work) using that skill. Obviously, few of us ever achieve this, so if you have reached the 10,000 Hour Crest for any given skill you […]

Being Different, Part 6: The 10,000 Hour Crest

In a Part 5, I discussed the Long Incline of Experience, upon which, I asserted, many would camp. This means they would never reach the point of true mastery of a skill. That’s fine, as few of us do for any given skill. If it were easy we would all be masters of nearly everything. […]

Being Different, Part 5: The Long Incline of Experience

As I described in an earlier post, the Elevator of Enlightenment saves you from the Plain of Suckitude, and dumps you out on the Long Incline of Experience. For most people, this is where you will camp. This means it is a skill that you will always have, but that you will never truly become […]

Being Different, Part 4: The Elevator of Enlightenment

In the previous post, I introduced the Plain of Suckitude, which is where we all suck at some new skill until, suddenly, we don’t. When you arrive at the “ah ha!” moment of a new skill, it is when muscle memory takes over, or when the mental grooves are finally deep enough that you suddenly […]

Of Mashups and Makers

I’m afraid I must interrupt my series of posts on “Being Different”, which begins here, for this important message. Yesterday I participated in a panel that I arranged, and that my employer (OCLC) sponsored, on linked open data at the ALIA Information Online Conference in Brisbane, Australia. The drawing in this post was created by […]

Being Different, Part 3: The Plain of Suckitude

In previous posts I discussed what “being different” meant to me and sketched out my “topography of skill acquisition” in which the first stage of the journey was “The Plain of Suckitude”. Now I will explain what I mean by that. When acquiring a new skill, everyone begins on this plain. It is flat, since […]

Being Different, Part 2: The Topography of Skill Acquisition

In Part 1 of this series, I wrote about what I think makes someone “different”, in relation to the ALIA Information Online Conference’s theme “be different. do different.” I asserted that it was acquiring skills that you are not supposed to have that sets you apart. If you go along with that, at least for the […]

Being Different, Part 1: What It Means To Be Different

I will be participating in the ALIA Information Online conference in Brisbane, Australia this month. One of the most interesting and enjoyable activities I will be participating in is a seven minute lightning talk on a topic having to do with the conference theme of be different, do different. I like to think I know […]

So You Want To Be A Librarian

Thanks to Unglue.it, it just got a lot easier to answer the question implied by the title of this post. This is because that title, written by Lauren Pressley, is now open for all because of the successful “unglue” campaign run by Gluejar, Inc. The concept is pretty simple, as it is just using the […]

A Digital Birthday Present for Jack London

Tonight I will be attending the 137th birthday celebration for Jack London, put on by the Jack London Foundation in Sonoma Valley where I live. Jack lived here for many years, built his “Wolf House” here, and died not long after it burned to the ground and just before he was to move in. Meanwhile, by […]