Shopping is like your newsreader

Will posted about being an RSS fraud.

Yesterday, in three straight presentations about the wonders and potential of RSS to rock our eduworlds, I kept getting more and more embarrased at the fact that when I showed my Bloglines account, which has ballooned up to 197 feeds, it was obvious that while I might be subscribed, I’m not keeping up with my reading. In fact, if you totalled up the number of unread messages in my list, it’s a very audience appealing 3739.

He goes on to say:

I made the people in attendance yesterday swear that they would take a time out if they ever got up to 20 feeds in their aggregators. Hopefully that will keep them from feeling like a total RSS failure if they should “get behind” in their reading.

I’ve been hovering around the 250 mark for quite a while. Currently I’m at 260. I clean house from time to time but always add a few, espescially when local bloggers get going.

So why is a newsreader like a shopping? Recently, a friend of mine took our sons to Minneapolis for a sports weekend. We also hit the Mall of America. My shopping style is to do a quick cruise of the entire mall and then focus in on the stores I’m particularly interested in. I knew we had a few hours before the game and used my time accordingly. I like the fact there are other stores there that I may or may not go into. I’m aware they are there and given time, I may go in there because you never know if there’s something that interests you. I like malls. Lots of choice. I don’t feel like a failure if I don’t hit every store. Many stores I just peek in, get the drift and I’m out.

That’s why I have 260 feeds. I don’t get to them all but I like the choice.

Will sounds like a big box store guy. Fewer choices but lots of depth. Fortunately, there’s room for both. I just don’t see how you can get by with 2o stores/feeds.