When was the last time you sat down and picked about the details of a problem to solve it? How often do we get caught at “30,000 foot level” when trying to grasp something or read the patterns of news or sentiment? I’d say often. When I was a kid I was often accused by teachers that I “missed the forest for the trees”, which was and is still true. However consider this, if you don’t look at the trees that make up a forest, and look at them closely, you might miss the one that is carrying a pathogen that could wipe out the whole forest.
This exchange between Chris Brogan and Doriano Carta (and the rest of the post), gives context and words to the idea of going from a wide angle look at a problem to a macro look:
“@chrisbrogan I noticed the Hemmingway effect spreading amongst bloggers. Less is more is the credo for the new Macro-blogging age.” I followed up with this tweet which Chris retweeted: “By Macro-blogging, I mean zooming in on particular details as in photos instead of using the usual wide angle lens trying to cover too much” Someone said they didn’t understand what I meant, saying Macro means bigger. My response was this: ”Large in the sense of zooming in closer, not larger as in volume or quantity. More Focus, less words”
link: Doriano Carta » Blog Archive » Macro-Blogging in a Microwave Society
Paisano continues…
The good news is that we have the freedom to choose the tools and approach we want to use. It’s up to each one of us to choose the right lens (pen) for the job at hand. Would the subject be better served with the wide lens, the macro lens or something in between? The ultimate goal should be to capture its essence and truth as clearly and as effectively as possible.
When I start my day I have email, Twitter, Fever and now LazyFeed open to scan what has come in overnight. At this point I’m zoomed out. I’m trying to catch the big topics (Fever can do this for me with one click):
I think while RSS helped us gather the big picture, it’s Twitter (ironically micro-blogging) that has helped us catch more details. When I read feeds or scan my LazyFeed page…
it’s the big picture. Sure I see details there, but I sometimes don’t act on them until I see more information on Twitter or a post rises to the top to fill in the details that I’m looking for. Something that will provide context.
Macro-blogging is the perfect compliment to our infocentric world. We have tons of info spinning around us, but we take a moment to obsess (in a positive way) over a detail.
At least that’s the theory.
But as I dissect it further…
