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Cornelius Vanderbilt

In the early 19th century, a ferry boat operator in New York transported passengers from Manhattan to Staten Island and slowly expanded his business until he dominated the shipping industry in the United States. By mid century, Cornelius Vanderbilt owned ferry lines, river boats and steamship lines and was generally referred to as Commodore Vanderbilt.

In 1864, Vanderbilt sold the last of those ships and invested everything in the fledgling railroad industry. In the decade that followed, railroads transformed America and Vanderbilt became the wealthiest man in America.

When Vanderbilt saw the change happening in transportation, he didn't waste effort holding onto the past. He let it go and focused on the future.

What do you need to let go? Where do you need to be putting your full energy and resources?

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Twitter Guilt

When I first discovered Twitter, I was in awe of the way I could learn from reading the articles curated by the people I chose to follow. After carefully selecting a group of people I could count on to post links to interesting and relevant material, I linked my Twitter feed to Flipboard on my iPad and conscientiously read every article.

It was not enough to passively absorb this information. I also retweeted favorite articles from my feed and Tweeted new links to articles I found though my RSS feed and Google Alerts. Not long after blogging about how to Tweet to Expertise last October, I discovered a problem with the process.  As I gained more followers and followed many back, my feed gradually grew too lengthy to follow closely.

Initially, I allocated more time to following Twitter, but that time also filled up. Eventually, I gave up and focused my reading on the blogs in my RSS feed. I continued to generate Tweets and respond to mentions, but otherwise ignored my Twitter feed.

Creating Tweets, but not reading anyone else's, gave me a strong case of Twitter Guilt. It seemed hypocritical.  Even though I often Tweeted content from the blogs I follow most, I never saw or retweeted any of my friend's posts. I also discovered that the variety of my reading had dropped because many of the people I follow are better at curating content than creating their own.

The best cure for a case of Twitter Guilt is a Twitter List!  I have created a short list of people that I will follow closely.  These friends and sages are the people that share information that is interesting to me.  I will add and subtract from the list from time to time, but I will keep the list short enough that I can actually follow it and read the links in the time I have available.

Who is on your favorite Twitter List?