The online peleton

I think of myself as a bicyclist. I almost always ride alone. I ride hard and feel good about it afterwards.

On Saturday, I did 50 miles on my road bike—a good distance but not terribly special, or difficult. Except for one thing. This time I was riding with a friend and he pounded me into the ground. I suffered on the flats and even more on the hills, pushing as hard as I could and still watching him steadily pull away. We’d stop at a crossroads and he’d ask which way we should go. Inside I kept saying, “Oh damn, oh damn, the short way, whatever’s the short way. Get me home, make it end. Please.”

But out loud I’d answer, “It’s your ride. You pick.” So I suffered, and when it was over, finally, I was spent and I was sore.

But I knew I’d had an excellent ride, maybe one of my best rides ever. Not just because I was challenged and had a great workout, but because I learned so much. The main lesson was that I can’t do it alone. I’ve been riding regularly but always by myself—with no-one there to push me, kick my ass, rub my nose in the dirt.

So now I have to rev up my solo rides 3 or 4 notches, and I have to find some group rides and some training partners. They’ll make me hurt and that’s what I need if I’m going to get better.

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It’s the same thing with all my wonderful thoughts and ideas about what we’re experiencing online and in other media. I read, watch, observe, and my reactions are so terribly clever. Or at least that’s what I think. But if I don’t put my thoughts out there—and give others the chance to ignore them, or shoot them down, or maybe even appreciate them and make them better—then I’m just riding alone and probably not riding all that well. If I don’t join the group ride, I’m not going to grow.

Living the experiment

Are you afraid?

Sometimes you have to wonder if you can keep up. Other times you know very well that you can’t. Every day—literally—we learn about or stumble across new twists in the online environment. New online communities, new video channels, new aggregators and interpreters, new personalities, new scams and scandals and tools and opportunities.

Twitter and Pownce and Google and Seesmic and Facebook and iTunes and Flickr and Gawker and YouTube and all forever and ever amen. All crying for our attention and our time. We’re in the middle of a technological tornado which is swirling faster and faster and will anything short of some global disaster ever stop it?

Think of where we were just 20 years ago, then 10 years ago, then now, and think about where we’re going and if you’re really thinking about it, some part of you has to be scared. Sure you’re excited but you know you’re not in control.

We’re just riding the beast. The beast is going faster.

Do not close your eyes.