While it may not have been a milestone in my career, the meeting I just attended with a really brilliant team of experts on social media was a major learning experience that opened my eyes to the near impossibility of trying to keep pace with the flow of new technology.
It made me realize, for example, just how rapidly and continually this landscape is changing. To hear it from these experts, one gets the impression that nothing short of a 24/7 commitment is required in order to stay on top of all the latest innovations. In fact, it makes sense to me now why the “twenty-somethings” have taken such an impressive lead in this arena. What was new and relevant six months ago is almost obsolete today, a fact that I find slightly incredible.
I also got the impression that the epicenter of this seismic upheaval is somehow shifting from the West Coast back to the East Coast (or maybe that’s just because technological plates involved never stop shifting).
But the biggest “ah ha” moment came at the end of this meeting in the form of this comment by one of the experts: “Your web site isn’t really relevant any more.” WHAT? Mine and all those other myriad sites suddenly so outmoded they might as well be lost in cyberspace? This business of being on the cutting edge is starting to make me feel so far behind the times that any attempt to catch up would be an exercise in futility.
But at least it’s fun to attempt to stay “in the swim’ – even if the “current” is a bit swift and feels like it’s carrying me straight toward Niagara Falls.
