Why You Need an RSS feed or Google Reader

I was talking to a colleague the other day at a PD session and he wanted to get my blog address so that he could see what I have to say about Math. Of course, much of what I do is learn from others and add my experience. I am happy to be able to follow the likes of Dan Meyer, Vi Hart, Dean Shareski, Will Richardson, Alan November, Joe Bower and many others. You may have noticed, these are not all math folks.

His questions reminded me of how absolutely essential it is these days to have an RSS feed,

net vibes or google reader. If you are reading this you probably have one. If you don't have one, you should.

I tried explaining it to him without insulting him, hope I didn't. I'll try again here. Let's say you see someone on a TED Talk and you like what they say and how they say it. Chances are they have a blog where they have a chance to talk more deeply about their ideas. This is how I hooked on to Dan Meyer. I saw Will Richardson, Dean Shareski and Alan November at a conference. If I subscribe to their blog I am most likely to read it regulary. I will likely not if I just visit it when I get the urge.

From my blog reading (which I do happily daily), I have notice that some of the writers I subscribe to don't write much. I may delete them. Most writers have great blog posts some of the time, they do not inspire me with all of their ideas. The example I used with my colleague is that I might write great blog posts that are useful to you 10% of the time. You are not likely to catch that post if you just visit my blog occasionally.

Some writers like Dan Meyer and Will Richardson get my attention in 50% or more of their posts. For the same reasons, subscribe to their blogs so that you catch the great, the mediocre and the uninteresting.

If you want to catch fish, keep your line in the water, don't cast it from time to time. Good fisher persons also listen to others about where the fat fish are.

Find out who stimulates great ideas in you and subscribe.