Caveat lector.

As my research shifts focus from informal learning to well-being, I’m gaining new readers.

Welcome! Let explain where my blog is coming from.

When I began studying informal learning eight years ago, I decided to exemplify what I was talking about. I gave PowerPoint a rest. I became transparent in my work. I began thinking out loud. I shared ideas that were not fully formed.

Soon after Informal Learning came out, I arrived to give a speech to sixty people just as the curtain rose. I blurted out how happy I was to be here because I was looking forward to hearing what I was going to say. That spirit continues to this day.

I’ve been blogging for more than a dozen years. My blog is where I think in public. I’m cantankerous. I like to tease. I go to extremes sometimes, trusting my readers to pull me back from the brink.

I’m getting on in life. I am claiming the oldster privilege of being feisty. I’m opinionated. If you don’t like my opinions, let’s debate. If we find our agreement is fundamental, please go away. You can’t please all of the people all of the time. Life’s too short.

Lurking’s cool. I consume lots of information passively. However, I would like to hear from you once in a while. Make a comment. Take issue with me. Expand on what you find. Offer suggestions.

I write whatever’s on my mind. This blog is opinion, not news. I write from experience. Don’t expect footnotes.

What level of objectivity can you expect? I will never knowingly lie to you, but my recollections may be off. I may tell an impressionist variation of a story to capture the moment, so long as the meaning is preserved. In the story of the speech above, there might have been thirty people in the room; there may have been a hundred. I don’t remember. They didn’t have a curtain but that better conveys what was going on than my telling you I was whisked up to a veneer portable podium. Did I lie? Not in my book. The gist was right. This is not The New Yorker.

Speaking of which, I shed a tear for Jonah Lehrer. To me, the manufactured Bob Dylan quote was not that big a deal. I can’t imagine being in Jonah’s shoes: keeping up with neuroscience, being cutting edge, writing three great books, churning out articles for Wired, WSJ, and The New Yorker, appearing in the media, being showered with money, and heaven knows what else. Instant celebrity. He could have been delirious when he answered the phone and lied about the source of the Dylan quote. Give him a break. I don’t consider that such a big deal. All nonfiction is fiction anyway. That’s inherent in interpretation. I’d be surprised if I don’t tell the same sort of white lies here. I also self-plagiarize, retelling tales I’ve told before.

On this blog, timeliness trumps dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. The “b” in blog stands for beta. Expect typos.

I’m not aloof. If you’d like to interact, get in touch.

What else do you need to know?

I have a good track record at describing the future. I was promoting the web, eLearning, blogs, and informal learning before most people had heard of them.

I understand business. I’ve managed start-ups and have a string of accomplishments in marketing, product development, sales, and management. I have an MBA but I am not a business person at heart. I would prefer to be an artist than an investment banker.

I am a optimist and I have faith in the goodness of most people. I give people the benefit of the doubt. Most people are well-intentioned and live up to your expectations of them. My calling in life is to help people improve their performance on the job and satisfaction in life.

I am contrarian. I like to consider all the options, kosher or not. Convention rarely constrains my thinking.

I am playful. Beware of jokes, puns, and double entendres.

I am a generalist who innovates by force-fitting models from one discipline into another. My mind enjoys toying with such things.

I am visual. Well, we’re all visual, but in my case I go to sleep if there’s nothing but text on the page. I take snapshots. (I have 25,000+ photos on Flickr.) I rarely write a blog post without some sort of graphic.

I am edgy. I enjoy spicy food, bold wines, and stirring ideas.

I can be socially obtuse. (Insensitivity goes along with the ability to hyper-focus.) If you feel I’ve stepped on your toes, call me on it. I probably didn’t mean it.

I am re-reading The Elements of Style. I want to write sentences that grab you by the throat and shake you up. Please help become a better writer by critiquing my writing when it is not working for you.

I believe in the karma of the web. I love to share discoveries. I give to the web and the web gives back. I’m generous but I’m way ahead thus far.

Peace be with you.