Darrin Johnson's Weblog: Need for speed...

Tivo, and DVRs in general, have been both a boon and bane to society. On one hand they do a great job recording the shows you want to see and other hand they record ALL the shows you want to see. The consequence is that you end up watching more television than ever before. Google Reader (www.google.com/reader) is also both a boon and bane. Gone are the days of trying to memorize websites and RSS feeds, having bookmark lists the length of your arm, custom links on your desktop, etc. Google Reader creates a fire hose of information with a remarkably easy to use interface and even provides easy to add bundles on a variety of topics including news, sports, technology, video, etc. What you don't find in the bundles can easily be added manually or by clicking on any RSS feed icon. Once you have your feeds in place it is trivial to scan them to either ignore them (and the counter automatically decrements) or clicking on them for more information. Google Reader even gives you trends to show how addicted you are:

From your 81 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 15,280 items, starred 1 items, shared 0 items, and emailed 0 items.

Ironically one of my feeds is Zen Habits which recommends to simplify your life and shy away from such foolish tools. What can I say I am addicted! Those of you who still rely on memorization, bookmarks, custom links, etc. should give Google Reader (or similar tool) a try.