Copyright 2012 by John T. Reed

I write articles here which you apparently know about. But I also do Facebook posts when I have a little less to say. Easier and faster to do it there. But I find myself thinking that all of you read both and that is probably not true. So if only because I put good stuff at each and it is sometimes necessary to read both to get the total picture, please sign up as one of my Facebook friends.

I have two Facebook pages:

http://www.facebook.com/johntreed.publishing

http://www.facebook.com/johntreed.coaching

The “publishing” one is the general one where I write about headline news, hyperinflation, everything but coaching stuff.

The coaching one is where I write about baseball and football coaching stuff. Sometimes I screw up and put hyperinflation stuff on the coaching one, but the idea for that facebook is just coaching.

Please sign up as one of my “friends” for the general one if you are not also interested in coaching, the coaching one if that is your only interest, or both. It’s free.

For one thing, there is a dialog over there. You can comment or ask questions or read comments or questions from others. I seem to get into a lot of fights there. Here is a comment I posted on 11/20/12 because I got into some fights and got chastised for it.

Yo homies. Listen up. I am a professional writer. I make my living doing this. When I write on this wall, I am mainly talking to ALL the friends, not just you.

People tune into my wall because the discussion is more disciplined, more informative, and more entertaining than most. I am not trying to win Mr. Congeniality. I believe in tough love. I have been a drill sergeant, a football coach, a landlord. I am not here to kiss your ass. I am here to prevent you from getting killed in combat or hyperinflation or getting embarrassed in your next football game.

When you come to my wall, your minds are full of mush. But when you leave, you leave thinking like a Harvard MBA—without paying $100,000 in tuition, room, and board.

If you want to participate, great! But either know what you are talking about or, if you wish, jump in not knowing what you're talking about and learn from getting punched in the nose figuratively speaking.

Mark Levine does this on his radio show. I think he is too harsh, but he provides a good illustration of the basic idea.

I am here to interest, stimulate, and inform my however many hundred friends I have, not to get each and every contributor to think I am a great guy to invite to tea. Financial writer Jane Bryant Quinn once said that I was "a smart man, a funny writer, and always provocative." Just so.

My late mom once got my monthly newsletter and asked in our next phone call, "What are you? The Don Rickles of Real Estate?" Yes, actually. People pay to watch him. They do not pay to hear your next-door neighbor say nice things to everyone she meets no matter what they do or say. Have a nice freaking day.

Most group discussions in the Internet are more heat than light, dominated by a clique. My wall is a one-man clique, which is a little better because it’s simpler. Plus it’s optional. If you like my articles at this headline news page, you would probably like the Facebook version because it’s similar stuff only more frequent, shorter posts, plus other people’s comments.

You have to behave yourself over there. I unfriend someone about once a month. And I delete some posts if they cross a line I cannot precisely define. Today I deleted one from a guy who said I was an overt racist. Well, if that’s the case, no one needs anyone to point it out, do they? I deleted another one last week because a guy was gleefully celebrating a phrase that could be interpreted as a reference to a penis—like a comment you would expect from a middle school boy.

If you love Obama, you probably don’t want to hang around my Facebook wall. It’s been said that you should not discuss politics or religion in polite company. My wall is not polite company, although I rarely get into religion because to me there’s no there there. I don’t know how many angels fit on the head of a pin. Not interested in debating it.

I am not trying to increase my number of “friends.” I don’t know what it is—in the hundreds I think. Who cares? There’s no prize for a high number.

What I am trying to do is avoid confusing those of you who only look at the articles, but not the Facebook. To me both of them are ways I communicate thoughts about hyperinflation or the election or whatever. Is bothers me that those who only do facebook or only do the articles are missing the other thoughts I post. I keep being afraid I will say something at one that is crucial to understanding in the other and not realize the two different audiences did not get the Facebook post about X that is crucial to understanding the article about Y. In other words, I can’t keep straight what I said to which group. So please be in both groups so I don’t have to.

In recent years, I have noticed an odd phenomenon. I sometimes have fights with readers, but later they come back as if it were a quarrel between two friends and they later realized the big-picture relationship was the thing, not any particular moment. It’s odd because previously in my life, such things only happened with face-to-face friends, not with people who only knew me as a writer. I think that getting over print-only quarrels between me and some readers is a good thing—a sign that so-called “social media” is not overhyped with regard to the word “social.” That really is what it is becoming.

Thanks,

John T. Reed