Do you prefer to spend your time locally or globally?
“Two hours spent being useful to one person who wants to ‘pick my brain’ is two hours I’d rather spend making something that could be useful to the whole world (including that one person).” -Derek Sivers.
GeeIWonder
on 02 Dec 12Disagree. Would rather be truly useful to one person and make them in turn useful to others than float around trying to be useful to the whole world.
Ever do a calculation about how quickly bacteria multiply?
Think global, act local.
Anonymous Coward
on 02 Dec 12There’s nothing to disagree about. The article asks how you want to spend your time. Derek says both are valuable and necessary, but for him, global is how he’d prefer to spend his time.
GeeIWonder
on 02 Dec 12Neither extreme is entirely true of course. But being useful to the tangible person in front of you tends to be more actionable and more accomplishable than being useful to the whole world (which implies first developing a sufficient understanding of motives, means and methods of so many agents it’ll eat your two hours right up anyways).
Saying you’re not doing the actionable thing because you’re doing the bigger picture thing only goes so far.
Simone Brunozzi
on 02 Dec 12I disagree with Derek. If you think you’re going to change the world, you’re arrogant. If you try your best to help ONE person, perhaps you’re going to change the world eventually, after you help many others. One by one.
Anonymous Coward
on 03 Dec 12Obviously both approaches are useful and necessary. #notblackandwhite
Anonymous Coward
on 03 Dec 12Wow. “Id help you out but if I did I would be wasting my time imparting my genius on you when I could be changing the world instead. Dont worry youll benefit from all the greatness I give to the world so Im still awesome even though I dont want to bother with you directly.” Arrogance and douchebaggery combined. Couldnt disagree and dislike this quote more.
C Asghar
on 03 Dec 12One should live a balanced life by spending more of the time for global , which has higher impact and less on local . Being local helps you enjoy the beauty of life with people , nature etc. Most of the people miss this part by being an introvert.
My Take ” Spend all workday’s for global and weekends for local ” - C Asghar
BillP
on 03 Dec 12I know a person (who will remain unnamed – I don’t want to be a shill) who makes a point of spending an hour or so helping anyone (who asks) with their specific problems/questions. She’s a true mentor, a very giving person. Once the hour is up she stops – otherwise she runs out of time to do her other important activities.
Later, the information [shared with the one person] becomes a blog post that gets shared with 500 or so readers. Often it only takes minutes to reformat and present the knowledge so that it can be applicable to all.
The one person is happy because of the personal attention given, and a new relationship is created or an existing relationship is strengthened.
Meanwhile the larger group/blog readers get advice that is practical & applicable (if one person is asking, there must be others interested in the answer).
And finally the mentor gets fresh content for her blog, and gets new business and repeat referrals from people that are blog readers or friends of people who have been helped in the past. Often they’re complete strangers who live in faraway lands – which never ceases to amaze her, even in the day & times we live in.
Help the One, AND help the Many. End result is that everyone wins. Like “the Cheat” in the StrongBad cartoons, maybe we can all get the Trophy! ;-)
Tom Ordonez
on 03 Dec 12This is the most accurate definition of anti-social anti-community
Berserk
on 04 Dec 12This quote is preceeded by:
Maybe he just finds it more taxing mentally talking to one person, than write blog posts or giving speeches.
While I agree that there might be a bit of perceivable arrogance in the quote (he is after in a somewhat unusual position), I don’t really find that in other things he have written/said. (Benefit of doubt, and all that.)
Berserk
on 04 Dec 12Addendum: I think the layout of this blog would be improved by styling <blockquote>s in a way that distinguishes them from other parts of a comment (the second paragraph is a quote).
Devan
on 05 Dec 12A quote formulated by (I am assuming) someone who has never had children or had a long teaching position with an apprentice/student.
It’s sad, because the quote conveys the idea that the sharing is only one way. Countless teachers and parents will tell you that often, while teaching and guiding, you tend to learn a lot yourself.
Standing on a pulpit and yelling broadly at the masses about what YOU thinks is good and great means you miss out on that vital feedback and intimacy that is crucial to your own personal growth.
This discussion is closed.