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The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
Oh My God, the RSS Feed Actually Works!
Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
Friends, Bloggers, Countrymen ... lend your ears to these people. I come not to bury them, but praise them.
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My TIME articles
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Online column index
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Daily Blah for... Monday, June 03, 2002
Coping with E-mail addiction
Another week, another magazine column. This time it's my bang-up-to-date 12-step program for how to stop checking for messages and get your life back. If you think the comparison to compulsive gambling too sensationalist, I can tell you the doctor's full quote is "the brain gets the same hit from checking e-mail as it does from gambling, drugs and alcohol." In other words, since you've got a sufficient amount of reward from it once or twice -- a nice message, an old friend reappeared -- you're going to throw the dice again and again, even if you don't get the same reward every time. Reaching what behavioral psychologists call "extinction" -- the moment your brain realises it's not worth the effort to keep checking (or pulling the one-arm bandit lever, or having another drink) takes an incredible amount of time. We're hard-wired to get hooked on this stuff.
Speaking of obsession: if you're at all interested in the kind of World Cup garment-rending talk I spouted yesterday, you may like to know Time is running a World Cup weblog of its own, with contributions from ten of our most soccer-mad correspondents. You'll notice a slightly retooled version of my England commentary leading the pack. But you, dear Daily Blah reader, always see it here first.
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