A long time ago the estimable Antony Mayfield was kind enough to send me a review copy his new book, Me and My Web Shadow. This is a great book to give anyone who wants a primer on all things internet and I’ve already recommended it to friends who ask things like, “How should I start blogging then?”
Personally, I tend to subscribe to the view that if all else fails, then read the instructions and I’ve learnt most of what I do about networking online by trial and error… but got prodded to try a few new things by Antony’s book. The style is accessible and avoids being overprescriptive.
But aside from lots of sensible advice, it’s the more casual observations that were most interesting to me. I especially liked a section called “Completism v Flow”:
Our cultural bias for work and study is towards completing things. We perceive a virtue in reading the newspaper from start to finish each day or in the report begun, carried through and completed… Perhaps soon completing things won’t be considered as valuable as it was before.
He takes this further and talks about flow and the very different world his children can now access via screens. Good stuff.
