I just spent some time cleaning up my Bloglines subscriptions. I was finishing up my daily ritual of reading various blogs and new sources when I realized how sucky it felt.
Reading feeds used to be fun. And interesting. And decidedly not like “work” at all.
So I spent a few minutes reviewing my feed list. If I couldn’t remember the last time I learned something from a given source or was entertained by reading it, I unsubscribed.
That included a number of “high profile” bloggers in the echo echamber who used to be interesting but have become to wrapped up in trying to tell others how they should do things, folks who merely repeat memes and “hot” stories, and so on. So often I would just look at and think “who cares about this shit?” and click on to the next feed. No more.
In looking over what was left after my slash and burn effort, I realized what was going on. I like to read what interesting people write. The less they write about their jobs (genrally speaking), the better. Most of those who are preaching and/or wannabe journalists didn’t make the cut.
It’s funny how you can be stuck in a rut for a long time without ever realizing it. I’m going to keep doing this pruning until reading is enjoyable again. I think I got pretty close in this one pass.
Jeremy Zawodny is the author of the popular Jeremy Zawodny’s blog. Jeremy is part of the Yahoo search team and frequently posts in the Yahoo! Search blog as well.
Visit Jeremy’s blog: Jeremy Zawodny’s blog.
