Questioning and creativity

Got creative yesterday, and found myself tweeting, where questions seemed to be a big deal. And wondered what would look like if put in most of tweet stream here. So will be three tweets I think where will start with top one. If follow me on Twitter then already saw, yesterday.

First one:

You make a decision to create but something inside of you must respond. To get you have to ask, but why? Questions drive. Answers? May come.

— James Harris (@jstevh) August 6, 2017

Next one is about a poem that came before it.

And just for some creativity, as rhyming so much with a poem seems so contrived to me. But at least it looks kind of clever, I think.

— James Harris (@jstevh) August 6, 2017

And here is the poem, which really was mainly meant to be talking the subject. So not sure how creative it is really.

Poetry compresses,
but you still have to try.

Asking the questions,
wondering why.

Questions push you ready or not.

Give best you've got.

— James Harris (@jstevh) August 6, 2017

Have lots of thoughts on Twitter where would be nice to pull into one place, but would be nice to be easier. If is possible with something out there of which am not aware, oh well. Maybe will learn of it down the line.

But have found myself thinking about how much creating something with me is about asking a question, and will get an answer at times! Like asking myself, is there a poem in there to explain this concept?

Answer was, yeah. How good is it though? Is another question.

All of which has me pondering role of questioning with creativity. Why do we question, really? And still to me? Is writing to write, so will label that way. Will try to remember to use twitter label too, when have tweets in a post, as great way for me to keep up with ones that do too.


James Harris

Firmly on the ground but to fly

There is a jolt I feel now when people talk about chasing your dreams, of mixed emotion. And think so often one can hear it like a mantra, but feel more like while people talk about YOUR dreams you should chase, more often you will find judgement based on theirs which to me is odd.

So would like to think that if I talk about YOUR dreams with you? Will at least give you the chance to share, if you wish, but only if you wish. And to me your success then becomes about your standards in finding that which you chose to define. And I have no right to judge.

However practical reality as human beings is that we do self-reference all the time. And the proper word is meta which got lost to other things maybe because people don't like to admit it.

Is it too honest to acknowledge how often you look at someone else through the prism of your own desires?

That sounds cool to me as am in a mood to write for writing's sake. Just to watch the words march across the screen. They're stumbling a bit, which to me is about emotion. There is so much FEELING in the subject of dreams. Why do we chase our dreams, in one sense, in contrast to what we can experience nightly in a different context? Musing to me is more appropriate. Though even there the word is rooted in other ways. Who is your muse?

Got a tweet want to put here but debating with myself. I wrote it one way, but wonder if should have been slightly different:

Dreams define admitted or not,
actions speak better than words

Those chasing may find through trying a lot.

Or best with actions deferred.

— James Harris (@jstevh) July 24, 2017

And here's the alternate, which would still be 140 characters exactly, if tweeted. Will fancy it up a bit too with italics:

Dreams define admitted or not 
actions speak better than words. 

Those chasing may find through trying a lot. 

Or best with actions deferred.


And with second version simply keep consistent with punctuation, as add the missing period from first part. Which required removing a comma, which could consider redundant.

Here's the thing though, as logical as that sounds? Am not sure which version is actually correct. Or did I leave that off with the original, on purpose? Was it some poetic instinct which was more valid than the reasoning which thinks it fixes?

Is up to the reader really. I can read one way, and others different. And THAT is what captures you, and why we end up worrying how others see our dreams. We are a communal species I tell myself, and it matters how people care about what you share.

Mostly it matters, when they do care, versus not caring at all.

Who you matter to, matters as much as the dreams. That word is so hard on me with writing, as matters to, fits so much better than anything else, says the creative part of me. But a judging part of me doesn't like the dangle.

Feels like am leaving something hanging.


James Harris

Tweet about scintillating web reality

Was on Twitter and had been tweeting away. And for some reason was thinking to myself I just want to get creative and tweet something just to write something and see what happens.

And I got this tweet:

Our scintillating web reality reflects endless truths in flashes of brilliance to the educated mind seeking, seeking what is purity present.

— James Harris (@jstevh) May 11, 2016

Which seemed to fit the bill. So I tweeted it and then started staring at it a bit.

And what I think it means is that flashes of truth are part of like a kaleidoscope kind of thing? And easier to get with a mind educated, to find? But coming back to edit, wonder why I wrote kaleidoscope and think more likely was thinking of a mirrored ball.

So then if it's true, then it's purity present, right? So truth is, purity. Yeah. And to me, yes, truth and purity go together. So probably simply turning around a bit the purity of truth.

Which is what I get after I reread it several times. And I think that's about right.

As the writer should I just leave it subject to interpretation though? Well still is. Just giving my interpretation, where I happened to write it, so guess I should know.

Creativity is something else. Really get a kick out of those things where I write something and then have to puzzle over it a bit, and then say, yeah, it DOES make sense.


James Harris

My suggestions on using Twitter

Currently have 144 followers at time of this writing--as that thing can change--on my Twitter account which I think is a decent number. Kind of wonder sometimes why it's that high, but I'll take it. And have some suggestions for those out there who wish to keep their follower count low.

First off, have posted already that "followers" I think is the wrong word, as is more an audience in my opinion. So yes, if you're not entertaining? Don't expect it to get high.

So yeah, don't try to entertain people if you wish to manage your follower numbers!

However human beings like to compare themselves to others so you get really weird behavior on Twitter. Like I try not to follow accounts that start following me for a while, as I noticed that some of them? Would wait to see if I followed and if I didn't they'd drop me!

They were JUST FOLLOWING TO GET FOLLOWERS which is utterly worthless behavior.

So they didn't care about what I was tweeting. No interest in me as a human being AT ALL. I was just a way to try and get one more number which is useless as it's an audience number. So it's like you have these people trying to fill an auditorium when they don't have an act.

And that's about it. Don't try to entertain people, and don't follow just to get a follow back, and you too, like me, can I believe successfully manage your Twitter account.

But DO follow accounts that interest you. Follow just enough to have as many tweets in your stream as you like, without being overwhelmed. And look for areas of interest to you when picking accounts to follow.

It's your time. Why not use it to get the best information you can from the accounts that deliver it to you consistently, accurately, and fast?

I like to call Twitter the social media power tool of the 21st century. And learning to use it takes WORK. Some people try things that leave me shaking my head. But hey, it's free. They can do what they want. And it's not like I know for sure they're wrong!

However I strongly suspect some people see follower count as a status symbol. Yeah, maybe for celebrities or organizations, but to me? It doesn't matter under a million.

So if you don't have a million or more followers? Your Twitter account doesn't have status with me in that way. But I'm just one person with an opinion. Maybe others might be impressed?

Occurs to me that's actually quite arbitrary. Just an obvious metric. So does less than a million matter? To me? Yes. But that doesn't mean that's actually meaningfully valid I guess by some way I can't even think would actually fit here as typing. Really not that important I guess to me.

But if you're chasing status that way? I think that's interesting. It IS so obvious if you're trying. Hard not to notice.

Twitter is a fascinating place. Lots of players using all kinds of ways. Getting to the top of the heap there? Well everybody has an opinion on that one am sure.

I prefer to just enjoy Twitter as one of the greatest tools for communication ever devised.


James Harris

Coolest with Twitter Ten Year Anniversary

So Twitter celebrated ten years a couple of days ago, which turned into the coolest day for me on social media! So let's see how it looks to share here.

@jstevh #LoveTwitter pic.twitter.com/NpwBwBS9jm

— Twitter (@twitter) March 21, 2016

Looks good!

Oh yeah, and yes! My notifications went up. Got a bunch of retweets! Finally almost felt like maybe what people who get that all the time must feel.

So yeah, I got a reply from Twitter! And was just on Cloud Nine for the rest of the day.

These kinds of things should be memorialized. Yup. Most definitely.

Oh yeah, Twitter definitely knew how to do a 10 year anniversary! Kudos.


James Harris

One of my favorite tweets

Here's a tweet that I think has a lot of lucky about it. Because it's saying something about tweeting, while the tweet exemplifies it. So it's like a meta-tweet.

Here it is:

Punctuation is extremely important in a tweet. It fascinates me, when every comma means something. DO you capitalize? And exclamation? Rare!

— James Harris (@jstevh) October 11, 2015

And it's talking about punctuation in a tweet, right? And every comma DOES mean something, which is shown in that very sentence with--a comma. I capitalize to show emphasis in the sentence talking, yup, capitalization. And only exclamation had to go outside sentence talking it, but dramatically!

And the entire tweet? Exactly 140 characters.

Went to Open Office to get a character count can show:

And the image does get a little bigger if you click on it.

And to me, is lucky cool that could make a tweet that talks all that at all, but that it would all come out perfect as well? I like that.

I find it remarkable.


James Harris

Tweets local?

Find myself concerned about Twitter again, and started pondering where I think there is a problem with more people signing up to be on the platform and I think it's simple: plenty of people are hesitant about potentially talking to the planet.

And yeah an awesome strength of Twitter is that a public tweet can bounce around the world but what if that causes caution in plenty of people? Then they can sign up, yeah, but without tweeting themselves are likely to feel left out. And also Twitter relentlessly reminds you of your follower count, which is another subject, but not tweeting? Where is it likely to go?

So occurred to me quickly, wouldn't it be cool if there were an option for tweets to just be local?

And I'm brainstorming here, with just thoughts as a fan of Twitter, tossing things out on my blog. Does not matter for me if taken seriously or not. But if are? Cool.

But like, say you had to have location on, which is the one problem with this idea, and tweets tagged to a location, like say New York City, would only be shown by the Twitter platform to people IN that location? So like from San Francisco you couldn't see those tweets at all.

And you couldn't see them if you didn't give your location which is my one concern with this idea as I brainstorm it out. But you can cut on location to SEE such tweets if you arrive some place and cut it off, when you leave or just don't want to see those tweets.

So these would be special location specific tweets, while public ones would be just the same.

And of course there would be the caution that the tweets could still be potentially seen outside a location as people could figure out ways to share them but that the platform would only show them location specific.

So the Twitter platform would behave a certain way with them, and guess they couldn't be shared like public tweets which is another problem. Like no retweets except to local? But people can't see them to retweet them anyway. Or even if retweeted only would show local? Yeah that makes sense. So even if retweeted, for someone outside the locale they just wouldn't even show. The platform would just check: is user in location? If yes, show. If not, do not show.

You could do it by city or region maybe. It could even be user controlled though don't know how heavy of a coding task and infrastructure load that might be. But like if you could tweet local to even a small city, or town, that could be a powerful feature, where people could chatter away for just their location with a reasonable expectation that others were unlikely to see!

And I think LOTS more people would sign up. Actually tweet, without worrying about talking to the planet, and even build decent follower counts within their locale.

Public tweets can be a BIG deal. Twitter should recognize that reality. And maybe give people more options to limit their exposure?

Just a thought. But yeah I think it could be cool. Like you arrive in San Francisco, cut on local tweets, and walk into conversations just within the City, which you can't see until you get there. Could be like a welcome home.

And decided to brainstorm this post which means limited editing. Oh, so better go back and read through a couple of times before I post. Limited editing done. Throwing out there.


James Harris

Moments of sunrise

Found myself curious, so will embed one of Twitter's Moments. This one is of sunrises.

Rise and shine! 🌇

Wondering how it will look, and also can it be relatively timeless. I prefer things that don't go stale after a bit. And sunrises? Yeah, they should fit the bill.

Looking for community, art and the conversation

Most of my life one of the most important words has been "art" which has dominated so many of the best parts. From books to photographs, paintings, and poems, and so much more. But also to my own feeling that science is the art of prediction.

So of course was fascinated when a premiere institution of art, tweeted a great question! And I answered:

.@SFMOMA I think art is the purest expression of our core humanity. Is sharing in a way that resonates with the human soul. Time irrelevant.

— James Harris (@jstevh) September 4, 2015

Whether you like my answer or not, the conversation to me is also so fascinating. And talking with other people sure beats just talking to yourself, though I enjoy that too.

And SFMOMA retweeted me! Was one of the most exciting days of my social media life.

Ours is no longer a passive world mainly absorbing what is put out by people who can get on television, or radio or gain the interest of newspapers. In our world we can be part of the conversation.

And if you are on Twitter and haven't followed the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, I'd highly recommend you do.

Community is where one can kind of get the feeling that maybe these ideas that run through one's mind aren't completely off-base.

Somehow I think it is just part of being human that need to share with others. And so much better when you feel like that was appreciated. Better when we share.

Community and the conversation are the most important things to me on social media, as you can get so much information which I love, but you can try to add back as well. And get a response.

And so much better when someone asks the questions.


James Harris

Why talk pay?

Was really gratified to see a hashtag on Twitter that emphasized greater transparency in salary. Which is something I highly recommend and have a blog post where I explain why.

Will quote myself, sorry but that explains so much, and give the link to it:

...Ever wonder what is the best explanation for why companies don't want employees to share what their salary is? 

Now you know. It's so they can keep salaries lower...

Beyond Mundane post: Valuing knowledge and money

But it gives me a chance to disclose some information about myself, which I put out in a tweet:

Interesting, but current situation is depressing as unemployed. But I peaked out at $65k per year in 2002 as a software developer. #talkpay

— James Harris (@jstevh) May 1, 2015

Being able to embed tweets is very cool, so yes, you can click on the hashtag.

And yes, will readily admit it is an embarrassingly low salary for the tech industry. And that was in the Atlanta metro area, and I was a lead Java developer. Of course also it was over a decade ago. I left the position voluntarily, to focus on some personal projects.

And that's the highest salary I've ever had, though I didn't get that full salary back in 2002, as I left before the end of year. And talk about a shock as my income went to zero. You learn lessons about yourself from such things. And think a lot about making certain decisions. But I don't regret it.

Clearly then I'm am NOT money motivated. But I'd definitely like to make more money, but on my own terms and without chasing it as the reason. It matters to make money to achieve certain life goals I have.

So I worked it all out in a post where I have the money conversation. Had to figure out everything too, so have other posts covering things like promotion, as I try to figure out how to make money and still like myself.


James Harris

Some writing just to write

The more I write, the more I like to write. Which can be a fun activity in and of itself, and thought I'd collect a few things into a blog post.

Like I just did this EXACTLY 140 character tweet today:

This tweet will be perfect, which means it will have EXACTLY 140 characters. And as I type I wonder if it is that easy--think it then do it.
— James Harris (@jstevh) April 22, 2015

And I was just wondering if I could so I started typing, and found it worked out. But I'm not sure why. So yeah that tweet is exactly 140 characters, and if I'd failed? Well then I just wouldn't have tweeted it. So it's like a low pressure effort. People only even see the effort was made if it succeeded.

(Easiest way to check? If you're on Twitter copy and paste into tweet box to see that 0. Just don't actually tweet it though, of course.)

But I also did this tweet of exactly 140 characters a little bit before which is consistent with the theme here:

Being creative is fun. Expression is the thing. Best when you work hard to make it as beautiful as you can. But regardless worth the effort.
— James Harris (@jstevh) April 22, 2015

Wondering if it's a bit awkward. I'm guessing some things have to be done to make things fit but it's unconscious so I'm not sure how my mind is figuring it out. It just feels like I want to do it, and I watch it happen.

I think it kind of explains the feel of writing just to write.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

There's something about getting creative that is so much fun to me. It can be irritating though to think there's some point beyond crafting something you like.

I like crafting things I like, but I also like tossing them out there, like this post. But the effort can be the thing. Crafting sentences, wondering what comes next. What does come next? And then you write something down. Or did I like saying "like" too much? Does it matter?

The flow though can be taken for granted at times, or not, but sometimes I look back and realize the power of the action--just sit down and write out this thing. Why does that happen? I want to put something down, so I do. And then it will get done. Now edit. Keep editing. Edit some more. Walk away. Come back, edit.

So yeah, that happened. And I have the words to prove it! Looking at them always is convincing. But did there have to be a point? Beyond the effort?

Tweet views

Did an email search this morning to see when I first got an email from Twitter with tweet views and found it was March 21st, so over two months ago. But then re-read a post of mine with advice to Twitter which suggested they give tweet view information, which was April 30th.

So I'm sitting here wondering about having suggested in a post of advice to Twitter something they'd already started doing to some extent a month before! And that's the thing. The email told me my tweet with the highest views, and guess I should also say it had 10 views. I was underwhelmed.

And I have no clue if anyone at Twitter reads this blog, but if they did they might have been puzzling about me asking for something I was already getting except the thing is to me, a highlight on a single tweet or two or three isn't as much as I'd want. I'm talking about across the board tweet views, so you can see with every tweet. So I guess I'm not really being inconsistent here. (Sometimes I puzzle about myself.)

Oh yeah, so for a while I've been getting a weekly email from Twitter with highlights, telling me which tweets get the most views. So it doesn't cover all my tweets, just the few that seem to really get interest.

And that's progress. Where remarkably enough having this information I must say weirdly enough I've been getting more and more views each week, as I seem to be unconsciously adjusting how I tweet. So it's like, with no clue which tweets work or don't, how can you adjust? But with that information, I'm looking at weeks where like, I'll have over a thousand tweet views. So from 10 to 1000 in a couple of months? Seems like that information is important to me.

Not sure how widespread this thing from Twitter is, but I think it clear ALL tweeting Twitter people need it, if they are interested in maximizing tweet views! If they don't care about that then no, they don't need the info.

But it is weird to see what resonates, because it's not completely intuitive. Scratch that--yeah I could just delete it and type something else but being dramatic--it's NOT intuitive.

Before I got the information from Twitter, I didn't have a clue.

Oh yeah, glad to at least be getting the highlights information, but will add that knowing in how many and which countries the tweet was viewed would also be very useful information.


James Harris

Some advice to Twitter

Yesterday Twitter reported on earnings and the stock went down in after market trading where the explanation I read was that investors were concerned with user growth, as it was beneath market expectations.

I'm not surprised.

I really like Twitter and LOVE recent advances, like being able to embed tweets into posts which I've used, and the new profile. If you wish to see mine, you can check:

twitter.com/jstevh

And I like to tweet, and checking now for this post I see I have 4237 tweets. But tweeting is providing content, and I think Twitter fails to understand how hard that can be so I'll talk about YouTube with advice for Twitter.

Can you imagine if YouTube behaved like Twitter? Then it wouldn't count views much, only people putting up videos! Do you have videos on YouTube?

I actually do. They're more like test videos and checking for this post, I have 61 views. But at least I can check to see how many views I have! I cannot tell you how many people have viewed my tweets as Twitter doesn't tell me.

Can you imagine if YouTube behaved that way? Then we wouldn't know the most viewed videos on YouTube!!!

If they behaved like Twitter we would know the most shared videos, as sharing is equivalent to re-tweeting.

Quite simply Twitter doesn't appreciate the content value of tweets and still behaves as if they're mostly throw-away communications between two individuals versus being rich content in their own right.

The inability to see the true value of tweets and to give respect to tweet viewers as well as producers is I think the biggest current problem that is restricting the company.

If YouTube behaved like Twitter it would appear to have a growth problem as well, as its user numbers would be pathetic with lots of people signed up versus the number posting videos.

So, my advice to Twitter is to accept users who do not tweet but view tweets as being valuable to the company just like YouTube accepts people who post no videos!

And I believe more people will sign up for Twitter if they don't feel like they are pressured to tweet.

It can be demoralizing I'm sure to look at very few followers or very few tweets and feel like you just don't belong.

I'm not sure how Twitter can make those folks feel welcome even if they're not tweeting into the thousands, but I suggest they think of a way.

And please give analytics information for those people who DO love to tweet, so people can see which tweets are doing great beyond just re-tweets or favorites. Views are passive. Re-tweets and favorites are active behaviors.

Most viewers are not going to engage in an active behavior with tweets beyond looking at one, just like most people don't engage actively with videos on YouTube beyond looking at them, yet YouTube tells us views anyway.

Thanks Twitter for doing a great job, and my advice is just my opinion which I like to throw out there.

Talk is a lot easier than helping hundreds of millions of people communicate around the world! So I will note that my thinking is mine and may not represent the best path. Others may agree or disagree.

It's just so much fun to throw ideas out there.


James Harris

My concept of the Infi

A few years ago I started mumbling to myself about the Infi--the INFormation warrIor.

Totally a knock-off from the Jedi from George Lucas, of course. And such a fun idea.

Mostly I've tweeted about it, but thought, why not put something on one of my blogs too?

The idea is that today you have these people who operate in cyberspace as individuals who can really shift things, so it's like real-life Jedi but their powers are not about the physical so much as about wielding information through the modern web. So I call them Infi.

Like Julian Assange would definitely qualify I'd think as an Infi with this concept. And so would PFC Manning, and Eric Snowden.

So are they good or dark adepts?

No point in asking the current Executive Branch of the US Government which may wish to think one thing, but unfortunately there are times it can seem to be like the evil Empire of Star Wars, remarkably enough. Change from such behavior would be a good thing.

Actually it's very weird how much our modern world can be paralleled with the vision of George Lucas, where you may note there were senators and dark political intrigues.

The Jedi moved through this world as remarkable individuals able to change things on a galactic scale.

Today there are individuals who can stand against entire nations, thanks to the power of the web, who live a life that is so far definitely rivaling fiction and even inspiring it.

Possibly we are moving into a different world, with the rise of the Infi.

Here's a tweet I made a couple of years ago:

the age of the infi is only just starting to emerge.
— James Harris (@jstevh) March 12, 2011

If so, I suspect it will make the imaginations of even the greats like George Lucas seem not quite up the task of a world where speed, information, and change can happen in battles in cyberspace that can engulf a world, where many people are barely even aware of them.

But their lives are changed regardless.

Here is one of my favorite tweets from me playing around with the idea. I don't take it too seriously. But at one time I thought I would be a science fiction writer but now mostly just muse about things on my blogs.

Still that urge to be dramatic is still there:

Code of the infi. We are the code. Our power is mind. Our way is the Order.
— James Harris (@jstevh) May 29, 2012

To a better world.

And, again, I'm not taking it all too seriously. I'm just a guy who loves to play with ideas. And my concept of the Infi is just one of the fun ones.


James Harris

Fun Twitter game for bright people: perfect tweets

Because Twitter has the rule of 140 characters or less for a tweet an obvious and fun game is to produce perfect tweets, defined to be 140 characters exactly, but that's not enough as here is a perfect Tweet that I tweeted earlier today to my Twitter:

In my opinion, crucial criteria for a perfect tweet is that it be EXACTLY 140 characters, have few if any abbreviations, and is grammatical.

That tweet is 140 characters exactly and is (um, I'm fairly certain), grammatical.

Ok, updating as I got in an argument over this subject, so have a variant to handle both cases in case it turns into some kind of major thing:

In my opinion crucial criteria for a perfect tweet are that it be EXACTLY 140 characters, have few if any abbreviations, and is grammatical.

And later I found another...

The perfect tweet must have the following conditions: it must be 140 characters, be grammatically correct and have few if any abbreviations.

I'm curious, how many tweets on Twitter on any given day are perfect by those rules?

Here's one more perfect tweet:

My wild guess unsupported by inside information is that YouTube is now profitable. If so congratulations Google, and what took you so long?

I will admit that I don't in general try to make my tweets perfect but will if I see one approaching perfection work at it if I can, briefly to see if I achieve that, but if not, it's not a big deal.

But how hard can it be? I have one more perfect tweet:

Ok, I've locked down both variants of the "perfect tweet" which defines itself as perfect within the tweet while also being a perfect tweet.

That tweet is perfect.

(Hmmm...editing yet again to wonder, how many times can you use the phrase "perfect tweet" in a tweet which is itself perfect? I've managed twice above, can anyone do better?)

But when it happens I do wonder, how hard is it to do really? And, how did I do it?

Doing a web search on "perfect tweet" I see other people are using the term and differently. Oh well. Also one site has the phrase "twoosh" for a tweet of 140 characters "on the first try", which I guess means no editing.

Hmmm...maybe I should call my definition a "twee-dunk"?

Oh, I know, how about a "twee-three"?

No, basketball references may not work with all viewers...so I will still call it a perfect tweet, and others can do what they want.


James Harris