I posted this to Facebook a while ago:
My father-in-law very kindly expressed the fact that he certainly had no idea what I meant.
So, here goes:
Large newspapers and — increasingly — small newspapers have begun enacting a technological paywall, a wall between consumers on the internet and the bulk of their content. Different papers do it different ways. Most allow you to read a certain number of free articles within a 30 day period; after you’ve read those articles (commonly 10 articles, see the New York Times and the Toronto Star, for instance), you can’t read additional stories from that paper unless you sign up and pay for an electronic subscription.
As I said originally, I get it. Reporting the news costs money. Good opinion / editorial content costs even more. More than ever, personalities draw visitors. Charging those visitors for access is one way to stay in business.
But is it a good way? I feel like as technology develops, we often make decisions to use it without asking that extra, “Is it good?” Newspapers don’t appear to have asked that about paywalls. They’re doing it, not realizing that they’re driving away any chance of younger consumers ever deciding to subscribe to the print content.
I wonder whether some candor might work instead? Something like: “Hey, you’re reading here a lot. Our cookies say that you’ve enjoyed 258 articles on our site this year. Would you consider subscribing? It’ll help us to continue providing the great content you’ve found here so far.” That’s so crazy, it just might work.
Archives for January 2014
Write down your victories
If you’re the type of person who is given to despair (i.e., a human being), you should take care to write down the victories you win. Even the small ones.
Why? Because despair comes. In those moments, the human memory becomes incredibly, remarkably small. You will not be able to remember the victory you won the day before. If your battle is trying to focus and write, for instance, you may write 800 great words today, but when you sit down tomorrow to wage battle, you may be entirely incapable of remembering that those 800 words ever happened. You need to record somewhere, somewhere easy to reference, that there was a battle, and that you won it.
God knows human beings are like that. He commands (and commends) all kinds of memorials, both with His people in the Old Testament and with His people in the new testament. There’s the story of Joshua and the people of Israel crossing the Jordan:
“Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.” (Joshua 4:2-7, ESV)
There are many, many others. There’s the, “This do in remembrance of me” of communion, an opportunity to declare a victory routinely as the church.
I need to learn this lesson. You probably do, too. Record the victories. Set up the stones. Come back to them when you despair, and remember.
I'd rather not use pen and ink
John writes this at the end of 3rd John:
I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.
It seems like John knew that some things you just had to do in person. I wonder if our facebook / email / text message obsessed culture needs to learn that lesson?
Vacuuming for the Creation Mandate
I vacuum every day.
Maybe not quite every day, but nearly every day. It’s part of my job, you see. I manage a high-traffic office; we have people in and out all day long. And their feet bring in dirt and stones and leaves and all kinds of stuff.
As the new year kicked off, I tried, as so many do, to do some heavy duty processing about who I am and what my purpose is. That kind of thinking can at times be detrimental to one’s mental health, but I’ll tell you, this go-round, I’ve really enjoyed the process.
Because I’m learning to appreciate the small things. Like vacuuming. God’s initial mandate for man was that he be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth. Believe it or not, vacuuming is one of the ways I accomplish that mandate. Every day, the earth tries to win the battle by dumping more of itself all over my carpets. And every day, I beat it back with a whirring hoover.
It’s good work. It restores order from chaos. It makes presentable what was a mess. So, I vacuum every day, but I’m learning to appreciate it.
How to Be Creative in Four Easy Steps
There’s a phrase for what just happened there in the headline. It’s called “Link-bait.” It’s a headline that makes you want to click, especially if you’re a certain type of person. In this case, it tends to work if you’re the kind of person who wishes they were productive creatively, or more productive creatively, or what-have-you.
You can find posts like this all over the internet (like, 657 million of them, no joke). And usually it all boils down to the same things:
– Learn
– Brainstorm
– Plan
– Do the work
Seriously though, and not to say that those aren’t great steps, or that however YOUR article about creativity words them is better, you know what the real issue is?
You’re not doing the work.
That’s it. That’s all it comes down to. Are you doing the work? Are you writing? Are you painting? Are you creating? Are you programming?
Or are you just engaged as part of the not-so-insignificant audience for these things that wishes they could, but won’t actually ever get around to doing the work?
You don’t need more articles like these. You need follow-through.
Me too.