What’s a Maven Anyway?

Malcom Gladwell defines a “Maven” as an “information specialist”. Furthermore, mavens are “people we rely upon to connect us with new information.” By collecting information and sharing it with others people are influenced to act. As soon as I read this in his now famous book, “The Tipping Point”, I knew he was describing me. Mavens tend to be viewed as experts but they are really just people who solve other people’s problems by solving their own and while everyone solves the various problems in their lives, mavens just talk a lot about what they are doing. That has always been me. Mavens don’t set out to be mavens. We can’t help it if others seem to be influenced, or at very least, interested!

This blog is about discovering and sharing the small, everyday things that make some sort of difference in my life. While many of mavens have specialties (for instance, Davd Pogue is a personal technology maven who writes for the New York Times, he’s great!) I am just your ordnary general purpose maven. (Althought I am quite passionate about personal technology so you will read about it here a lot!) My information tends to be about the ordinary and mundane things that punctuate each of our lives. Small things. Healthy living, relationships, friendships, politics (office and otherwise), work, whatever I find that solves a problem or simplifies my life will be open for topic this blog. Be warned however, if it is a big complicated proposition or an otherwise huge undertaking, (or expensive!), you won’t read about it here! This Maven doesn’t have a lot of spare time.

So, if you are interested, great. If you are influenced, WONDERFUL! In the past, my “maven network” has been limited to the handful of close friends I share information with while having a cocktail after work on a Friday night. Blogging gives me a chance to see just how influencial one can be.

I hope you enjoy!

.