Hey

Thanks for a great blog. Well done, I really enjoyed reading it. I spend my spare time searching online for blogs and websites that I am interested in. In fact I have become a sort of a health conscious recently and I buy a lot of my herbal products from http://www.youherbal.com , anyways thanks again and I look forward to all the updates.

Jessica

Tom, you should update your What's the Big Idea book from a few years or so ago, and rank the success of big ideas somehow... just a thought...!

I know what you mean and I feel your pain. :-). It is good to have a choice, but it does take effort to make your choices wisely. The experience of talking with a normal voice, while surrounded by people shouting, is probably more difficult for professionals who used to a "broadcasting" model of the past. Since I am new to this "conversational" model, I don't expect a lot of attention to my writing. In fact I started to publish my blog for "therapeutic" reasons, since people who had to listen to me had difficulties to relate to a level of my concerns. I am astonished and gratified that so many people actually do find my writing interesting enough to come back for more. Of course a number of my "many people" would surely disappoint you, and of course it is not a source of income for me.

Dominant management thinking

Tom, I was wondering why you would write that you're envious that one publication dominates the dialogue.

This might make it easier to find a common thread to discuss when you're meeting someone (e.g. during a conference, on a plane, train, etc.) as in your scenario you can be quite sure that he's read this publication. It might also lead to a quite informed discussion. It will certainly not be the most refreshing, multifaceted and passionate one - which is what you get when not one style and one thinking model rule.

Difficulties or heaven sent complexity?

Although forming part of Generation Y, I can still understand both Tom and Gregory (the other commentator): choosing well is not an easy task.

The same tools business writers use to get the word out about a new publication and which may seem chaotic and dispersed are also the ones that help me make a good decision though. Throw in a bit of search as a basis.

Comparing the broadcasting model with the internet model, and staying with business publications as an example, I'm happy not having to rely on a bestseller list, to have this choice and count on the support of my friends, followers, readers and contacts.

They all help me to stay informed about the field I'm interested in: everyone's scanning his or her space, blogging or tweeting about it, social-bookmarking it, writing me an e-mail, etc.

It's up to me to find the people who scan the space I'm interested in and whose judgement I trust. They all have a profile or a tag cloud - so that's easy.

And when it finally comes to the decision of buying one book or the other I can quickly get personal feedback on the shortlist, in addition to the reviews and ratings that I can find on the relevant sites, and make an informed buying decision about a book that I never saw, that probably never was or will be, on any bestseller list or covered by major media.

I'm using this model and it works for me. However I'm also frequently going to book stores, where I rummage for interesting titles, read passages, sit down if the book grabs my attention and buy it if I like what I see.

My hunch is that you take the first three or five sources of info that work for you, and stick with that. Occasionally, you troll the field, and if something pops up to knock one of those three or five out of the box, thats it. But you don't hunt routinely.

Tom,
First off, pierogis are great and most assuredly the ones in Poland! Second, like Gregory, I started writing a blog for "therapeutic" reasons and to help others navigate the corporate ladder. I do have a "preferred" list of reading, be it online or in print. But as you note, it is getting more and more difficult to know just where to start, especially with time as a precious commodity. But now, with my own blog [www.ninasimosko.com], I have apparently added to the problem of "Too Many Sources of Management Ideas". Oh well, I can only hope that others add my writings to their own "preferred" lists of reading.

Nina

I do not agree with you. I think that we need a lot more info about management ideas. For example I look for this kind of management blog in France and I did not find anything.
What we need is information about information : that is only possible with the internet. Tags, crowdsourcing, folksonomy are the pilars of how we can swin on all the available information!

http://www.managementetmoi.blogspot.com/