Comments on: Today’s Thought: We need to build cool shit http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/2008/04/29/todays-thought-we-need-to-build-cool-shit/ Thoughts from a technologist and journalist Wed, 09 May 2012 14:41:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Fleet Street Blues http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/2008/04/29/todays-thought-we-need-to-build-cool-shit/comment-page-1/#comment-3244 Fleet Street Blues Sat, 03 May 2008 01:22:01 +0000 http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/?p=258#comment-3244 "Build cool shit": I like it. Now all we have to do is write cool shit too... “Build cool shit”: I like it.

Now all we have to do is write cool shit too…

]]> By: Patrick Beeson http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/2008/04/29/todays-thought-we-need-to-build-cool-shit/comment-page-1/#comment-3204 Patrick Beeson Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:16:41 +0000 http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/?p=258#comment-3204 As I stated <a href="http://patrickbeeson.com/blog/2008/apr/07/why-rob-curley-right/" rel="nofollow">in my blog post on how Rob Curley's strategy could work in other newspapers</a>, we need to focus on building useful things, not just cool things. Especially if those things need to make money, which I argue <a href="http://patrickbeeson.com/blog/2008/apr/07/why-rob-curley-right/" rel="nofollow">may not be the way newspapers need to go</a>. Also, keep in mind the amount of money and time it takes to build cool stuff. If that cool stuff is attached to a business, it's assumed that it will offer a return on that investment. As I stated in my blog post on how Rob Curley’s strategy could work in other newspapers, we need to focus on building useful things, not just cool things. Especially if those things need to make money, which I argue may not be the way newspapers need to go.

Also, keep in mind the amount of money and time it takes to build cool stuff. If that cool stuff is attached to a business, it’s assumed that it will offer a return on that investment.

]]> By: Marc Matteo http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/2008/04/29/todays-thought-we-need-to-build-cool-shit/comment-page-1/#comment-3201 Marc Matteo Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:02:15 +0000 http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/?p=258#comment-3201 But if we build cool shit, we may just have piles of cold shit. I came to the realization after a newsroom conversation today that I have two distinct "classes" of friends: those that are "connected" and those that aren't. It's the ones that aren't that I suddenly found interesting. They're not some gaggle of technological luddites or anything, they are by and large normal people with normal lives... who have never heard of Twitter. They don't blog and they don't follow blogs either. They use computers, they have broadband connections, they find things with Google, but they go days before checking their email. They have mobile phones but they don't send text messages. They don't fear technology... but they don't wallow in it either. It is to these people that our "cool shit" can be meaningless. And I worry. I worry because they far out number my "connected" friends. Do they know something I don't? But if we build cool shit, we may just have piles of cold shit.

I came to the realization after a newsroom conversation today that I have two distinct “classes” of friends: those that are “connected” and those that aren’t.

It’s the ones that aren’t that I suddenly found interesting.

They’re not some gaggle of technological luddites or anything, they are by and large normal people with normal lives… who have never heard of Twitter. They don’t blog and they don’t follow blogs either. They use computers, they have broadband connections, they find things with Google, but they go days before checking their email. They have mobile phones but they don’t send text messages. They don’t fear technology… but they don’t wallow in it either.

It is to these people that our “cool shit” can be meaningless.

And I worry. I worry because they far out number my “connected” friends. Do they know something I don’t?

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