I decided to read the book Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky and found it to be very insightful on some important points for being a successful entrepreneur. It mostly made me question how I have and should be spending my free time. This book points out how things are changing in terms of how people are spending so much free time from things such as television towards social media and other forms of communication online. What stood out to me and surprised me most was the way Shirky emphasized the benefits of this change and made social media appear as such a positive outlet for this generation. I have always looked at it negatively but this book was able to highlight the ways it is a much better use of free time compared to other things like staring at a television. The way the book made me change my mind truly made me admire Shirky's opinion. This book connected with several points that we have been working towards in this class. One of the things we have discussed is spending time efficiently and this book definitely talks that over. It also focuses on interaction and finding opportunities through the best means available such as social media in many of the cases in the book.
If I were to design an assignment for this course that has to do with the concepts in this book I would create an assignment called "My Free-time evaluation". In this assignment I'd firstly ask students to write down a list of the five things they do most on their free time. After this they would evaluate if or how these activities benefit them professionally or in identifying opportunities. The third step would be to determine how they could use these activities in developing or creating current or future opportunities.
I think that my biggest surprise in this book was the part where he mentioned the need to be aggressive in posting to gain attention. He describes that sometimes upsetting people is the best way to gain attention while using social media.
Rob,
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a great book. I definitely need help with time management. I agree that there is so much television being watched and it can be a huge waste of time. I recently decided to get rid of cable because I realized I was watching so much television instead of doing more productive things. I think there is time for all things and like it says in the book social media can be a huge tool but we have to learn to use it wisely and to have balance in our lives.
Lucas
Hey Rob,
ReplyDeleteI am grateful for the knowledge you have provided, I completely agree with your post of how we should manage our free time. In this day and age, entrepreneurs often forget to use their time wisely and it is easy to get distracted fast. rather than seeking ours goals and inspiration we can get pull in from external forces that hinder our success. By emphasizing that in your post, you draw recognition and shine light on an important aspect of pursuing goals.
Nice work, all the best in your posts to come!