Categories: Articles

Too Many Blogs – Too Many Podcasts

When is enough? I was just looking at my Google Reader and then zipped over to iTunes when I noticed some new Podcasts has been published… and then it struck me: how will I ever consume everything that interests me?
When I think about that, I’m reminded of a day, many years ago, when I was in a very large used book store. I was on the second level looking through the poetry section (back then I was a huge fan of Charles Bukowski and Bill Shields – still am). There were tons of authors, books and chap books that I had never heard of. There were even more that I had heard of, but never had the chance to read. It felt like the moldy-stenched store started to spin around me when I suddenly realized that I’ll never get to read everything I should in my lifetime. No chance. Plus, there were tons of published authors with something to say and they all wound up on a shelf in a used book store.
As Blogs and Podcasting take hold and more people start producing content, it seems like as the days roll on, I’m falling even further behind on Blog postings and Podcasts. There’s no way to add more time to a day as more independent producers of content come online. Something has got to give.
The river of news in my Google Reader and smart playlist in iTunes titled, Podcasts, are simply not manageable. I know Steve Rubel over at Micro Persuasion, either deletes all feeds every now and again only to rebuild it based off of what’s important now, or he’ll just hit the “mark all as read” button and start again. Those are both not solutions to the challenge. There are simply too many Blogs and too many Podcasts… and yet, I wonder how many great new people will join the fray in the coming years?
I’ve spoken often about Digital Darwinism. The idea that those who are of relevance will rise to the top (people will subscribe to them) and those that don’t will simply be posting in the wind (lots of words, no readers). I’m hoping that those who are stricken with Blog (or Pod) fade will actually remove their content from the Web. Let’s keep The Tubes clean.
In the meantime, it’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon and instead of raking leaves, I’m raking feeds.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.