In contemplating a wired conversation, it seems that I have initiated one. That is a far more useful metaphor for the current state of connectedness that is perjoratively referred to as "blogging" than anything else I have read lately. I think the phrase "keep those cards and letters coming in" could be roughly translated to "me heart the trackbacks" in this age of the digital essay. Mind you, we are awash in a sea of prate as well but it is easily filtered. (Merely using "prate" in a sentence also helps to qualify reader participation.)

Ethan took part 1 of my "Activity or Action?" series and riffed it into something much bigger than I had envisioned in the near term. Coincidently he eschews blogging yet again in a follow-up post a few days later. While I do not agree as strongly with his aversion to being associated with blogging -- quite obviously by someone's definition he is blogging -- his repeated association to the concept of 'me, Writer' is sound.

"Activity or Action?" stems from my frustration with a lack of forward thinking and planning work in much of the current internet application space. I have much more to say about that but the issue at hand is Ethan's extension of the theme to be far more comprehensive. Take a look at his action points if you have not yet read his piece:
? "No" is not a plan
? Forward or Backward?
? Conservation as Regression
? Progress wanting, progress found
? What is dreamt of in your philosophy?

While things get a bit muddled in the middle, the thrust of the argument is that complex problems require progressive decision making. Progressiveness can borrow from the past and it will be multi-faceted. Progressiveness is not the domain of a particular political philosophy. Instead it dwells mainly in the houses that retain the best ideas for the problems at hand. Progressiveness is not a dogma, it is an ethos.

I think we are developing some themes here that quite reasonably could be expanded into a book. Once Ethan has finished his L'ingOL, I think he needs to face the AYBBAM demon. Given some of the latest business/leadership books I've been trying to read, we could not do any worse