Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - Finding Fertile Ground for Your Contribution

DanielBrenton · 01-20-2007, 10:37 PM

To all --

This is simply an observation -- I'm not really clear what to do with this yet, but I wanted to share it.

I've been writing and posting material about UFOs on my blog pretty steadily for the last few weeks, and have gotten some pretty flattering feedback, but I've come to a juncture. My sense, based on my admittedly limited experience of the on-line UFO audience and the folks who get the most attention writing about it, is that the larger audience isn't a reflective one, that they are, by in large, attracted to it out of curiosity (as am I) and are drawn to the newest stuff, and have little interest yesterday's thinking, as valuable as it may be. It's a form of entertainment to most of them, really -- something that fills some kind of void.

The material draws a number of similar subjects to it -- crypto-zoology (bigfoot, Nessie, and other oddities), conspiracy theories, paranormal (not hands-on, but more sensationalistic material), and "Fortean" kinds of subjects (as in Charles Fort, who wrote about all the subjects I mentioned, and odder things like fish falling from the sky, and so on). What I see is a bunch of folks intrigued in or getting themselves all excited about a range of stuff that has no direct application to their lives.

Now I could feed that market, and probably do pretty well at it in the long run if I so chose, but I don't see that I can add any value to that crowd. I don't see that I would be making a difference, because that's not what they are looking for. (And, honestly, I don't want to see my older material dismissed simply because it isn't brand spanking new.)

Please don't get me wrong -- I am not dismissing these folks as human beings. I do think there's an opportunity being missed here by most of these people, and I feel hesitant to contribute to keeping the circus in business. If you get to know the crowd, you'll see that the the Big Names are also mostly Big Egos, which says something about the scene ultimately, doesn't it?

This is a valuable experience to me in that I recognize that I want to make a difference, and I want to contribute in an area where I can.

And I again applaud Steve and Erin for having found how they can do that in their own lives and being so successful at it.

01-20-2007, 10:37 PM	#1 (permalink)
DanielBrenton Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 74	Finding Fertile Ground for Your Contribution To all -- This is simply an observation -- I'm not really clear what to do with this yet, but I wanted to share it. I've been writing and posting material about UFOs on my blog pretty steadily for the last few weeks, and have gotten some pretty flattering feedback, but I've come to a juncture. My sense, based on my admittedly limited experience of the on-line UFO audience and the folks who get the most attention writing about it, is that the larger audience isn't a reflective one, that they are, by in large, attracted to it out of curiosity (as am I) and are drawn to the newest stuff, and have little interest yesterday's thinking, as valuable as it may be. It's a form of entertainment to most of them, really -- something that fills some kind of void. The material draws a number of similar subjects to it -- crypto-zoology (bigfoot, Nessie, and other oddities), conspiracy theories, paranormal (not hands-on, but more sensationalistic material), and "Fortean" kinds of subjects (as in Charles Fort, who wrote about all the subjects I mentioned, and odder things like fish falling from the sky, and so on). What I see is a bunch of folks intrigued in or getting themselves all excited about a range of stuff that has no direct application to their lives. Now I could feed that market, and probably do pretty well at it in the long run if I so chose, but I don't see that I can add any value to that crowd. I don't see that I would be making a difference, because that's not what they are looking for. (And, honestly, I don't want to see my older material dismissed simply because it isn't brand spanking new.) Please don't get me wrong -- I am not dismissing these folks as human beings. I do think there's an opportunity being missed here by most of these people, and I feel hesitant to contribute to keeping the circus in business. If you get to know the crowd, you'll see that the the Big Names are also mostly Big Egos, which says something about the scene ultimately, doesn't it? This is a valuable experience to me in that I recognize that I want to make a difference, and I want to contribute in an area where I can. And I again applaud Steve and Erin for having found how they can do that in their own lives and being so successful at it.