Bloggy thoughts where life and work intersect

Off the travel topic a bit….I first heard the Brazen Careerist, Penelope Trunk, last year at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive tech conference (I’m currently proposing a travel blogging panel for the March 2008 Interactive.)

I was impressed by Penelope’s refreshing candor on her blog and the articulate passion in many of her readers’ comments.  Her Brazen Careerist book is out as well, which I’ve purchased ’cause you gotta support your fellow writer.

She spoke at BlogHer (where I was also a panelist this past July) and although some didn’t like her blunt style, I’m sure others enjoyed hearing her perspective.

While at BlogHer, she did a podcast with ListenShare‘s Stephanie Roberts, so I thought I’d listen even though, really, I’m not a podcast person because I’d rather read something so I can control whether I want to absorb every word or just skim.

I liked the piece, “Penelope Trunk: Defining the Brazen Careerist,” but I was somewhat frustrated because I took notes of the specific times on the podcast when Penelope addressed certain topics.  My thought was that I could say, “She talks about XYZ at time 21:15” of the 25 minute talk, so if you wanted to jump ahead you could do so.

Topics include her “disgust for people who give advice, but act like they [themselves] don’t need any,” how she posts off of a spreadsheet of ideas and links, how she transitioned from the 700 word ideas of a blogger to the Big Ideas of a book author (and got over “being pissy” about the many rules of publishing) and how she learned that higher-level time management means figuring out what NOT to get done.

For some reason, I couldn’t “click and drag” the little button on the podcast player to pull it ahead, so all my notes about what topic is where, my little podcast table of contents, is apparently for nought. 

This is another reason why I’d rather read at my pace than listen to someone talk at their pace, but don’t let my crabbiness about it all stop you from enjoying a very interesting conversation.