Today’s PSA: Understand the word “arrogant” before you use it

I find that people are so quick to label someone “arrogant”.

Bing and Google both define arrogant as “having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance or abilities.

Even Urban Dictionary (God forbid, and, NSFW) defines it as “When a person is led to believe that they are in some way more superior to everybody else.” [note: the rest of the definition wasn’t PG enough for me to quote it here.]

Arrogance is something that must be demonstrated over time. If the desire to label a person is a snap judgement then the most you can accurately call that person is “smug“. Don’t besmirch people just because you don’t agree on how things should be, or because they won’t accept your point of view. In that situation you should first agree to disagree and then ask yourself, “Who am I, anyway?”

And no, this isn’t me venting because someone calling me arrogant or implied that I am. It came up in my morning meditations and simply bothered me enough to say something about it.

 

Today’s PSA: Understand the word “arrogant” before you use it

Sometimes I simply need a good laugh.

This gave me one this morning. 😃

“The only real thing that people need to accept given a duel with a Tyrannosaurs Rex is that (pause of emphasis) you will die. You will die… SOON.
– Jon Davis, Marine

Original question and answer at Quora.com

Sometimes I simply need a good laugh.

Excellent Articles: The Secret to Staying Sought-After

I don’t recall where I saw this first… I think it was from a LinkedIn email… but the point is that it is a great article that plainly states concepts that a lot of professionals seem to forget or ignore. I’ve only made it to page 2 and I’ve already decided to put it on my “completely consume and absorb the first chance you get” list.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kareanderson/2012/08/31/the-secret-to-staying-sought-after/

Excellent Articles: The Secret to Staying Sought-After

The Death Knell of a Contender

Plancast is a social networking service many expected to become a fixture for those who like to give “friends” opportunities to be where they’ll be and do what they do.

The service has already floundered and is now dying on the vine.

This link leads to a very good analysis of its failure by its CEO, Mark Hendrickson. His timely comments perfectly reflect why I (a very early adopter) couldn’t use the service on a regular basis. As far as I’m aware of this analysis is a first for the social sector.

Also interesting are the comments of people who (as I did) liked/loved the service and honestly tried to use it as much as possible but for various reasons couldn’t. Scoble himself appears to have been  the first to comment.

The article: The Uphill Battle Of Social Event Sharing: A Post-Mortem for Plancast

Why am I sharing this? If nothing else, it provides tangible evidence that “great” ideas must have a viable model and a willing market that will achieve the critical mass necessary for success. Just my 2¢.

The Death Knell of a Contender

The Coolest Social Bio I’ve Seen In A While

Coolest Short Bio
This is the coolest short bio I've seen in a while.
The Coolest Social Bio I’ve Seen In A While