Taking back Google Reader: Thought Leaders
Things had gotten out of control. 
I had over 100 feeds in Google Reader. They were split up into technology, friends, business, entrepreneurship. Can you even definitively categorize a blog as being tech OR biz OR entrepreneurial?
I had thousands of unread articles. Dozens of starred items.
Something had to be done so I sat back and thought: what do I really want to get out of my Google Reader? What’s the goal? Is it to keep track of current events and development in areas that interest me? Nope. That’s what twitter’s for. Is it a way for me to see what my friends are up to? No again. That’s facebook.
If there’s something I need to go learn, I just go google it. A javascript library for quickly displaying data in a sortable table? Thanks Google. Understanding some of the finer points of first round terms sheets? Thanks Google. Do I incorporate as an S corp or a C corp? Thanks Google.
A reader feed is a distraction, and I already have enough of those. So what do I really want to get out of my reader feed.
I want to be surprised with brilliant content that I otherwise might not have searched out, or might have missed on twitter.
I want to follow Thought Leaders.
That codification really helped clear things up for me, so now I just have one folder with a few blogs. And I will read every single article that pops up. So far I got:
- Brad Feld
- Chris Dixon
- Fred Wilson
- Eric Ries
- Steve Blank
- Abstruse Goose (yes. this guy is a thought leader :P)
- Michael Lopp (Rands in Repose)
- Mark Suster
So help me out. Who’s on your list of thought leaders? Do you think there’s someone on my list that shouldn’t be?
