Power Saves, Short Cuts, and Followers

There is an ongoing argument between my two sons. Jack (14) swears by cheat codes, action replays, and power saves to advance his levels in various video games. Henry (11) thinks that's cheating and insists that the only way to gain levels is through honest play. I can see both their perspectives.

I love applications, lifehacks, and other short cuts. My statistics professor use to brag that smart students were lazy students. They always found the short cuts to solving problems. And I sure wouldn't mind having a power save for doing the dishes or a cheat code for mowing the lawn.

But on the other hand, some of life's greatest accomplishments come from the labor of achieving them. When I bought my BBQ smoker last year, a friend of mine who is a real BBQ enthusiast, offered to come over on the weekend and show me how to use it - a real life power save. But I said, "No thanks." It was a journey I felt I needed to complete on my own. No doubt filled with mistakes and failures along the way, but that's part of what I wanted to experience. And when the first pork butt finally came out just right, it was mine. I did it.

As I find my way on Twitter, I read all kinds of articles about power saves and ways to gain a large audience fast. I think this is another area where the journey is more important than the destination, so I'll keep reviewing profiles before I automatically accept and be picky about who I follow so that I can read most of their posts. Of course, that's only until I realize I can't read them all anyway and I start to check my twitter grade daily, then I'll download a power save and jump ahead.