“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” — John Keats
When people ask me what Sources of Insight is all about, I tell them, it’s about helping people “stand on the shoulders of giants.” I find and share the wisdom of the ages and modern sages by drawing from books, people, and quotes. I turn insight into action and focus on solving real problems with an emphasis on mind, body, emotions, career, financial, relationships, and fun.
Ultimately, I want to empower every Underdog in the world with better skills for work and life.
Books, People, and Quotes
Unfortunately, I don’t think this message was coming across clear or simple enough on Sources of Insight. I think you had to work too hard to find the collections of books, people, and quotes. My bad. So I took another crack at it and added the following to my menu bar:
I think this helps say in a very simple way that Sources of Insight draws from books, people, and quotes to lift you up.
Energized Differentiation
These changes are my attempt to breathe some new life into the blog, better surface some of the existing value, and test the art of energized differentiation. Energized differentiation is about communicating excitement, dynamism, and creativity. While there may be nothing new about books, people, and quotes, what I’m doing is turning wisdom into action. By focusing on patterns and practices and drawing from multiple sources, I’m helping people make the most of what they’ve got. I’m putting science on your side, along with wisdom of the ages, and giving you a system to put it all together. The world’s not fair, so this is your unfair advantage. Knowledge is power and it’s how you can level the playing field.
Trading Up to Stay in the Game
Every choice comes with trade-offs. To make this happen, I had to move some things around. I pushed my Lists collection to the Resources page. I moved my Archives from the menu to the sidebar. I bubbled up Categories on the side-bar. This meant pushing down my Best of Sources of Insight list of posts. While I was at it, I expanded my Best of list from 5 items to 10, to resurface some old gems. I also expanded the size of my Sources of Insight Amazon Shop. And, for good measure, I added a video of Alik on Getting Results the Agile Way. You’ll notice that while my sidebar is longer now, it should still be very easy to scan and find what you need.
Keeping Things in Check Using Scenarios
As a guideline to keep the changes on track, I evaluated against the following scenarios:
- User can quickly subscribe to the blog using RSS or Email.
- User can find and browse the Archives.
- User can quickly find and browse the Categories.
- User can quickly find the popular posts (Best of Sources of Insight)
- User can quickly easily discover what the blog is about.
- User can easily find out about me.
- User can easily contact me.
Keeping things simple and easy to find will be an on-going challenge. Keep in mind, I’ve got almost 700 posts, several hundred quotes, free E-Books, free productivity training, hundreds of lessons from people, guests posts from best-selling authors, and the list goes on.
… and yet the party is just getting started.
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Hi J.D.,
I thought your article about energized differentiation was very interesting, although I haven’t sorted out how it will apply to my blog. It’s great to see the practical application in this article. You seem to sum it up in these words: “turning wisdom into action.”
I find it intriguing that people are often more interested in the musings of popular bloggers than the wisdom of the ages. I’m just the opposite. But blogging advice is often to write from your own mind than to stand on the shoulders of the giants.
Happy Thanksgiving!
@ Sandra — I think you’ve been delivering on your energized differentiation …
– Energy brand is vision, invention, and dynamism.
– Differentation is your offering, uniqueness, and distinction.
You’ve been delivering on:
– your executive mind shines through
– your blend of personal dev, spirituality, and contribution
– your research and question-driven approach
– your quality brand
I think there’s always a blend of balancing existing work in the space, and adding your perspective and contribution. For example, CopyBlogger is a good example of standing on giants and adding a great spin, insight, and perspective.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hi JD .. Extremely insightful comment from Sandra – & I’ve just been over to subscribe to her blog .. while your reply seems to sum up more of your post –
Thanks for rearranging the side bars and explaining where things are and why .. and I’m so pleased you’ve added Alik’s video!!
Great – many thanks .. enjoy the week .. Hilary
start from your own mind or stand on the should of giants,it is a problem of different view angle?
@ Hilary — I think you’ll enjoy Sandra’s blog. She tends to go deep and ask good questions.
I’m still playing around with where to put things, but I think things are falling into place. It should be much easier to browse the entire blog now. I still have some more things to bubble up, but it’s getting there.
@ Andy — I think it’s powerful to be able to switch perspectives and views. It’s a skill that’s easy to build by asking different questions.
In terms of standing on giants, I think of it as moving up the stack and moving the ball forward vs. starting from scratch. It’s a way to leap frog and not have to re-invent the wheel.
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