A couple years ago, when I was invited to speak at Nokia OpenLab, I met a guy named Jari Pasanen. He was a VP at Nokia and he delivered the opening keynote.
Less than a minute into his keynote, he expressed his gratitude to Nokia for letting him be himself and still climb the ladder. Jari looked more like a Viking Biker (a Viker) than a shot-caller at some multinational. He stood at least 6’2″, had a shaved head, and wore earrings and black motorcycle boots.
I’ve been similarly blessed. But it hasn’t been because of any one company. Rather, it’s been the whole f*cking internet.
Over the last decade, I’ve become an expert of sorts at how some things work on the web. And that means that I’ve been able to help other people make sense of something very big, powerful and complex.
The result is that I’ve been able to make a good living being myself. I make decent money wearing jeans and sneakers, and helping older, richer, more powerful guys figure out how their businesses should use the web.
I’ve gotten to travel to a lot of cool places and meet a lot of cool people and even made a bit of a name for myself. Sometimes, when I roll into a conference, the bitches be all like “OMG, CT Moore! Ooh, I want to have your baby, CT!”
Okay, well, not exactly. But from time to time, I do get some recognition from complete strangers, and that feels kinda nice.
The point is that what it means to be an expert is changing because we live in a world where technology moves so fast that most of it becomes obsolete before anyone can really master it.
Experts use to be people that mastered using certain tools toward a certain end. Now, experts are people that have a lot of experience trying new tools and finding new ways to achieve the same old goals.
Yesterday was fire, today was electricity, and tomorrow will be cold-fusion. There’s not enough time to spend mastering any of them, but that doesn’t really matter as long as we can light and warm our homes.
Just look at the world around you! Look at the things you do and how much they’ve changed in recent years.
Did you ever think that so many tools would seem so primitive (pagers, flip phones, cash)? Did you ever imagine that you’d be doing things this way? Can you imagine how you might be doing them tomorrow?
firstly, it’s absolutely embarrassing and unacceptable to make glaring errors in the actual writing of one’s post. it shows a lack of care for what you’re saying. it’s literally stylistically mirroring the load of horseshit that you’re spraying all over the post.
secondly, what you’re saying is either idiotic or just plain ol’ doesn’t make sense.
i’m not sure which.
in fact i don’t know what’s worse: being an idiot claiming to be an ‘expert’ or claiming to be an expert and then arguing that expertise no longer really exists.
and finally, it’s downright scary that anyone would ever hire you or even ask you to volunteer to speak to other people about anything, as you are clearly either an idiot or very, very confused (or both, I suppose).
the thing that frustrates me most about the ‘social media revolution’ is that it gives guys like this a soapbox, and that they somehow rally together even dumber people to buy the senseless bullshit that this guy is selling.
hey asshole, I have no doubt spent more than 10,000 hours online by now. I ain’t no ‘expert’.
wait, does that mean i’m an expert at being me?
Hey shithead, I have 10,000 hours of experience marketing online — not just poking your sister on Facebook.
And no, you’re not an expert at being yourself because you don’t even use your real name.
You wanna dig into me, that’s fine. It’s a free world, and I’m not even gonna censor you on my own blog.
But at least have the balls to stand behind your own words.
You’re a coward and a troll, and I imagine a miserable cunt of a person who makes their own hell on earth everyday just by being awake.
This post is trite, ill-informed, poorly written and somewhat offensive (much like this entire site)
Here are some examples for each adjective:
Trite (many examples throughout):
“Just look at the world around you! Look at the things you do and how much they’ve changed in recent years.”
This is boring, cliched, and uninteresting. It ultimately doesn’t even lead anywhere.
Ill-informed (and basically dead wrong at times)
“Experts use to be people that mastered using certain tools toward a certain end. Now, experts are people that have a lot of experience trying new tools and finding new ways to achieve the same old goals.”
This is confusing, baseless, and simply wrong. It reflects the entire voice of the writing, which is the kind of faux-authoritarian anecdotal drivel that is plaguing the intenet.
Poorly written
“I was invited to speak at Nokia OpenLab to speak”
Re-reading the article after pinching it out might help.
Somewhat offensive
“when I roll into a conference, the bitches be all like “OMG, CT Moore! Ooh, I want to have your baby, CT!—
Boring and unfunny joke in any context, but certainly doesn’t belong in an article by any kind of media “expert.”
Thanks for pointing out the typo. I’m a terrible editor.
It’s too bad you don’t share my sense of humor. Life must seem utterly boring to you.
What bothers you more: that you lost a few minute of your life reading something you hated so much, or that you spent even more time taking the time to comment on it?
@Shockingly Bad and @Jerry Statler, it’s sad that you have time to waste either trolling the internet or carrying out some kind of lame personal vendetta, hiding behind a veil of what you think is anonymity. Get a life.
Hey. I ALWAYS say, “OMG, CT Moore! Ooh, I want to have your baby, CT!â€
True story.
Forget being a mommy blogger. You’d be a baby-mama blogger.
I don’t see what was wrong with this post. He was sharing some of his thoughts. I enjoy reading your posts and it was great meeting you at Summit the other month. Why are they ripping into you? I don’t see anything wrong with this post.
> Why are they ripping into you?
One word: jealousy.
The great thing about CT is he actually *does* know his stuff, inside and out, unlike so many other self-proclaimed experts who spread outdated or just plain incorrect information.
Hey CT – I remember Jari’s remarks very well also, even after a great night at Blak with a bunch of complete strangers who converged from all over the world, and have come to be great friends over the years.
I’m not even sure what to make of the anonymous remarks that were posted as comments here, but who ever they are never took the time to read more of what you have written, spoke on and believe from the heart. Your one of the most non-BS people I know who is out there, working along with the rest of us on the Internet, and to that I am appreciative. There’s plenty of social media douche bags out there, and you are certainly not one of them.
But your point is well taken, and many times people get lost in using the tool that they forget what they are building with it. I have no idea what is down the road, and if I did I wouldn’t be typing this from my office in frigid Chicago rather from my iPad on some Caribbean island I own. I remember back in 2004 i spoke to high school kids about the Internet and one asked me what the next big thing was, and I told him I had no idea. A few weeks later, YouTube came out, but even then it wasn’t what it was today. you have to react, adapt or fail fast and keep going.
To the journey!
mp/m
Absolutely love it! You should spread the word, great linkbait ;)
You do make a number of errors, but we all do, that’s either what stupid people or really busy people do, don’t worry about it too much and bravo for dropping the ‘C’ word!
@Jerry Statler:
You know I appreciate what you ve pointed out, and being a critic, you did your job very well, and about joke is that I may say that your humor is too limited… But check the latter part of my comment to open your eyes…
You know what? being a host here in the blog, CT Moore is never going to say a bad word to you only because you criticized him but remember one thing, you need to be care of what you say because here you are a sort of guest… and you should keep this thing in mind that “its easy to say truth than to hear it…” and if you know it already then you should praise the highness and respectful attitude of CT moore for how gently he replied you…
Still have some question, you are welcome to come here and say your say.
Get some life loser…