Synergy: an unfocused approach to learning about oneself

A lot of people prefer web destinations to have a very specific focus, but it appears that I am inherently an unfocused person, and therefore my web destinations also are rather unfocused.

Most Interesting SML Flickr: Synergy in data analytics: art + design + hacks + inspiration + photography / 2009-09-20 / SML Data



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Screenshots captured by SML Bio Bot on 2009-09-20
+ 500 Most Interesting SML Flickr: Page 1
+ 500 Most Interesting SML Flickr: Page 2
+ 500 Most Interesting SML Flickr: Page 3
+ 500 Most Interesting SML Flickr: Page 4
+ 500 Most Interesting SML Flickr: Page 5


In the beginning, SML Pro Blog was just the SML Blog, and it contains pretty much everything that my life contains, until I am getting some negative feedbacks from professional colleagues who wish not have their photos appear next to blog posts relating to my gay activities, which is when SML Gay Blog was born. Then some folks who got really annoyed with my massive photography output, and so SML Photo Blog was born. Then after a while I started to have so many blogs that I cannot keep track on, so I have now reconsolidated the SML Thank You and SML Notebook back into this blog, because it soon became *very* challenging to manage them all.

Conversely, I take a very-me approach when it comes to content on Flickr. I post pretty much everything onto it: my designs, my photography, my hacks, my screenshots, and source of inspiration all bundled up together. It's me, after all. By not separating these data, I gain a much better insight into which of my stuff is good and 'interesting' to folks.

I know far too many people who keep a separate Flickr profile for their "professional" life vs their "play" life but when I view the content, I can't tell the difference and reason as to why they are separate. Consolidation is good. Just filter, and tag. I think that via my very unfocused postings, I have successfully cross-marketed my designs to people who came to my stream because of my abstract photography; or that they discovered that I am much much more than a photojournalist who run around events.

Because of this content cross-pollination, I also learned based on my data that what people find to be interesting is also very all-across the board, and that is interesting to me. I made screenshots of the top 5 pages from the 500 Most Interesting Flickr (set) and bundled them together, and it provides a great sign-post as to where I should be headed next.

Related SML
+ SML Pro Blog: Philosophy
+ SML Pro Blog: Synergy
+ SML Flickr Tags: Synergy
+ SML Wiki: Flickr Analytics
+ SML Wiki: Interestingness