Scoble on How to Read 600 RSS Feeds a Day

July 17, 2007 1:13 PM

How to Read 600 RSS Feeds a Day for Pleasure and Profit. Video of Robert Scoble showing how he culls 600 RSS feeds a day for his weblog, Scobleizer, using Google Reader.
posted by shivohum (40 comments total)

Wow that's boring.
posted by delmoi at 1:29 PM on July 17, 2007 [3 favorites]

wget http://reader.google.com/thewholeshebang.rss > /dev/null
posted by furtive at 1:31 PM on July 17, 2007 [2 favorites]

Lifehackerfilter.
posted by everichon at 1:33 PM on July 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

The camera style informs me this might be a viral trailer for an upcoming JJ Abrams film. I didn't get to the end-- is Scoble killed by the head of the Statue of Liberty?
posted by gwint at 1:39 PM on July 17, 2007

Here's how I watch TV: I press the channel up button on my remote control. If the channel changes to a commercial, I press the button again immediately. If it's not a commercial, I pause for a moment to see if I recognize the show, or if its content is at all interesting to me. If I recognize the show and it's one of my regular favorites I make a note of it by saying "Hey [show] is on!" Often I linger longer on shows I like, or content that is interesting to me, sometimes until a commercial appears, at which point I press the channel up button again. When I get to the last channel, the television begins again at the first.
posted by rlk at 1:52 PM on July 17, 2007 [5 favorites]

Sweet. If I could do that, I'd be happier.
posted by k8t at 2:00 PM on July 17, 2007

I'm with delmoi on this one.
posted by MarshallPoe at 2:02 PM on July 17, 2007

This makes me want to go outside.
posted by milkrate at 2:05 PM on July 17, 2007

He should take some flesh time out to process his gut at the gym.
posted by rhymer at 2:17 PM on July 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Best (Fictional) Description of this vid's protagonist:

Best part, from what I'm told, was when Scoble finally bought his phone and handed over his credit card and the clerk looked at it for a second and Scoble said, "Um, yeah. I'm that Robert Scoble." Clerk, for the record, had no idea what Scoble was talking about.
posted by uri at 2:25 PM on July 17, 2007

I think I wasted more time watching that video than I ever would have wasted in an RSS reader.
posted by desjardins at 2:27 PM on July 17, 2007

Next up: a video of how I read a newspaper.
posted by ericb at 2:37 PM on July 17, 2007

The cameraman is Timothy Ferriss.
posted by nitsuj at 2:39 PM on July 17, 2007

Interesting in a 'I wonder what's in the neighbours' fridge' kind of voyeurism. ps. milkrate- I just went outside, it kind of sucked, and was raining a bit.
posted by acro at 2:39 PM on July 17, 2007

God, I thought going through my RSS feeds trying to find the interesting stuff was a dull task. That was before I tried to watch Scoble go through his own backlog. Tomorrow will be the best morning of my life.
posted by Plutor at 2:42 PM on July 17, 2007

Only interesting in a "I wonder what's in the neighbors' medicine cabinet and can I score some free Xanax, Valium or Oxycontin" kind of voyeurism.
posted by ericb at 2:43 PM on July 17, 2007

From nitsuj's link to Timothy Ferriss' website/blog:

"Stay tuned for part II, coming in the next week, which will answer the question: How does Robert Scoble read and organize e-mail? From speeding up Outlook’s performance to reverse spam filtering, it’s all covered."

I CAN'T WAIT!!!
posted by ericb at 2:49 PM on July 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

I've lived my entire life not caring what Scoble does...



...and my streak continues!!!!!
posted by tommasz at 2:58 PM on July 17, 2007 [2 favorites]

See, you go to the left-hand pane, and click "All items" to show everything from every feed. Then, you go to the right-hand pane and click "Mark all as read." Simple!
posted by arto at 3:06 PM on July 17, 2007

Is that guy a smart person or a dumb person? From the video he seems like he's maybe a smart person doing a parody of a really dumb person. "Look at that phone. You know it's a phone!"
posted by xmutex at 3:07 PM on July 17, 2007

That is what administrative assistants should be doing.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 3:25 PM on July 17, 2007

I have made it one of my life's missions to remind the posters of Robert Scoble-related content that he is a nonentity, utterly lacking in insight, whose predictions and assertions have panned out overwhelmingly incorrect over the past several years.

I honestly cannot understand why anybody gives him the time of day. I suppose the only sadder thing is that I spend my own time leaving comments like these. But if you please: next time, post about corpseflowers, Lao silk weaving techniques, Neutral Milk Hotel, Coco Chanel, the art of popsicle-stick-and-rubberband "switchblades," Doug Engelbart if you must...but not the Scoble.
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:33 PM on July 17, 2007

This is somewhat tangential, but is there a site that tracks predictions of analysts vs. outcomes? Surely would be an interesting data set...
posted by Herr Fahrstuhl at 3:39 PM on July 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wait, what's wrong with Doug Engelbart :(

600 feeds, eh? Wow. Incomprehensible... but pundits keep the bubble growing...
posted by rmm at 4:02 PM on July 17, 2007

That is what administrative assistants 55,000 members should be doing.

fixed that for ya.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 4:10 PM on July 17, 2007

Starting Monday, that will essentially be my job. Sigh.
posted by kyrademon at 4:53 PM on July 17, 2007

Slight derail: has this Viddler thing been discussed on MeFi yet? If anything, the "add a note at a specific point in the video" thing is a really nice touch.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:15 PM on July 17, 2007

what's an rss reader ?

Is it like a wee ticker tape that comes out of your computer ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 7:04 PM on July 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wow. I can barely keep up with all the feeds and communities I read on LJ, and it's nowhere near 600!
posted by SisterHavana at 8:19 PM on July 17, 2007

Poppycock: The Sturgeon/Kolmogorov Proof states that it is mathematically impossible for there to be 600 good specimens of anything, and when you factor in the Libby Variable, it's more likely that Zell Miller's anus will be this year's vacation hotspot than there are 600 site feeds worth subscribing to. I maximize my RSS experience by not subscribing to shit. Crazy, I know...

Stay tuned for Scoble's next amazing piece: How To Make Pocket Change By Attracting Knobheaded Efficiency Fetishists and Suckers Looking For The Next Big Thing In Get Rich Fast Schemes To Your Site! I hear that Rubel guy's coblogging, so you know it'll be good!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:45 PM on July 17, 2007

Since I didn't watch the video, how many of the 600 were lolcats?
posted by lukemeister at 9:15 PM on July 17, 2007

Most of them.

But seriously my oft-seditious friends, his title is Vice President Media Development--I think we all owe him our respect.
posted by oxford blue at 9:36 PM on July 17, 2007

I'd just like to thank all the commenters on this post who gave [a small part of] their lives so that others may live. I just hope that we all can use those 11 minutes and 38 seconds you saved us in such a way befitting your sacrifice.

You will be remembered. [oops, 9 minutes 27 seconds left, gotta go!]
posted by moonbiter at 1:27 AM on July 18, 2007

Thank God I got to see Zell Miller's anus before all the tourists ruined it.
posted by Joeforking at 3:12 AM on July 18, 2007

I only watched for half a minute, but this is some new geek-gay channel from Bangbros, right?
posted by mr.marx at 6:24 AM on July 18, 2007

That man has a head like a square watermelon!
posted by saturnine at 7:21 AM on July 18, 2007

I found Scoble massively boring waaaay before it was cool!
posted by waxbanks at 8:28 AM on July 18, 2007

i like the part where he reads the website
posted by tristeza at 8:35 AM on July 18, 2007

I like your part. ^_~
posted by oxford blue at 3:09 AM on July 19, 2007

I find it not particularly difficult to read ≈700 feeds. I am one of the few users of Kinja, which, like Keynote for Jobs, was pretty much written for Denton, who reads twice as many. It’s so simple it works in any browser (I frequently use Lynx, though it works best in Opera, with X key for Next).
posted by joeclark at 3:34 PM on August 3, 2007