Born Rich

Cory O’Brien, the Didn’t You Hear geek is here with his quirky answers so lets hear what he has to say to your queries:

1. Jason: Cory, the ‘Comment Love’ thing on DYH seems interesting. However, what kind of response are you getting from your spellbounded (through your electrifying posts) readers?

Cory: First, let me give credit where credit is due: Comment Charity was inspired by P.J. Onori’s Comment Love program over at SomeRandomDude , so I can’t take all the credit. Even
before I started blogging, I would try to give to charity whenever possible, and bloggers are always trying to get their readers to be more active and more involved in the site by commenting more, so I thought that Comment Love was a fantastic way to kill two birds with one stone. Plus, it gives motivation to my readers to know that their
comments are directly related to a charitable donation. I would say that my spellbound readers responded positively to the program. Every time I would write about the Comment Charity program, comments would come in, and the readers would start to express their feelings about what I was writing about. Unfortunately, I couldn’t keep up with
updating the Comment Charity total often enough to make it fair, so I had to take the link down temporarily. As things with the site have gotten more settled though, I’m definitely looking to bring Comment Charity back, and let my readers once again help to give back.

More questions and Rapid Fire Round after the jump.

2. John: Cory, there are blogs like Boing Boing, Neatorama, and many others covering the best/interesting stuff on the net, how is ‘Didn’t You Hear‘ different? Why should one drop in here?

Cory: Though I would love to blog full time, I’m not near the level of traffic that I would need to be able to do so, so I can’t keep up with the Boing Boings and the Neatoramas in terms of quantity. Instead, I want Didn’t You Hear to be a place to go for quality. I think that Didn’t You Hear is different because I put a lot of thought into the writing that I do on the site, and I don’t just run a blog full of links. I try to keep the posts entertaining and enlightening, and I hope that the site has a little bit of something for everyone. Also, I think that I cover an even wider variety of topics than Boing Boing and Neatorama, so you can check out Didn’t You Hear for content that you won’t find in many other places. Lastly, I create a lot of original content, such as my daily posts (Movie Monday, Tuner Tuesday, Website Wednesday, Things Thursday, and TGI Friday) that you won’t find anywhere else, so I’m going beyond a lot of sites out there that just repost the same old stuff and don’t add anything to the mix.

3. Mike: What’s the best way you suggest, to apparently all users of Internet, to handle the information overload? Or it has now gone beyond? Also, I’d like to have your take that will blogs be able to give a good fight and survive with the advent of IPTV?

Cory: My suggestion, if you don’t already, is to start using RSS feeds. I read all of my blogs through an RSS reader (NetNewsWire on a Mac) and it definitely helps me to work though a large amount of information quickly. On an average day, I’ll sort through over 1,000 blog posts, so it would be impossible for me to do that if I had to visit every site individually. Also, don’t worry about trying to find out everything that is going on in the Internet as it happens. Important news will eventually filter down through a variety of channels, so you’ll here it sooner or later. With regards to IPTV, I think that blogs will continue to survive because different people prefer different mediums. Just as the magazine and the newspaper have survived (though
admittedly to a smaller scale) with the popularity of television and the Internet, I think that blogs will always have a place in the media world. Plus, a blog is also a great way to form a community. It’s easy to interact with other people using comments and linking out to other sites through a blog, so I think IPTV will have to find a way of offering some kind of interactivity if it ever wants to take of in the online world. I’m definitely excited to see what happens
though, as the early adopter within me just loves the thought of new technology :).

4. Vikas: Why the name ‘Didn’t You Hear’? Why not ‘Cory is Here’ or something else?

Cory: Didn’t You Hear is the unfortunate byproduct of every other name
being taken when I went to register for a domain name. If I could change one thing about the site, it would definitely be the name. That’s not to say that Didn’t You Hear hasn’t grown on me though, and I do like the name, but having a URL with a word that normally has an apostrophe is tough, and I just wish I has something that was short
and catchy. Who knows though; maybe it sticks in people’s heads because it’s different and unique, so it might be a good thing.

5. Naveen: DidntYouHear has very successfully brought “anything and everything that’s cool, hot, fresh and classic” :-) till the date.
Now, as you say, you are going to take the site out into the real world. I won’t ask you anything about your secret project but I am
literally anxious to know what this “REAL WORLD” is all about and do you think your site hasn’t made its way into the real world yet?

Cory: I’m anxiously awaiting the time when my “secret project” is close
enough to ready that I can debut it to the world, but until then, I’ll just leave you with some teasers. When I say “real world”, I
actually mean the real, physical world. I want to take my advertising out and into the physical world, and I think that I’ve come up with something that is unlike anything that has been done before to promote a blog. It’s again an issue of time, because if I had more of it, I would probably be ready for a debut by now, but rest assured that I am still working on the project, and it will see the light of day sooner than later.

6. Pooja: Hi Cory, went through your blog its really funny, esp. the David Blaine part (:D), I’m inquisitive to know what are some of your favorite online and offline small business resources for inspiration and knowledge?

Cory: I’m glad you liked it! For a small business, I think that it’s all
about the people, so anything that keeps everyone happy and productive is a good thing. One of my favorite “personal growth”
sites right now is Leo Babauta’s Zen Habits. I’m constantly impressed with what he puts out, and I’ve picked up more than a few tips from that site that have definitely helped me to be a more happy and more productive person, so it’s worth checking out. Also, Lifehacker is a great place for tips and tricks to improve your life, so I’m always checking them out to see what they have to teach me. Offline (and partially online) I think that Fast Company is a fantastic magazine, and they’re always impressing me with the quality of their writing, and the originality of their stories. If you’re looking for inspiration, Fast Company is tough to beat.

7. Ritu: I went through your blog and it struck me whether there is some kind of message you want to put across to the readers, or are your writings simply pun intended?

Cory: I would say that it’s definitely pun intended. I would love to say
that I have an overall message that I’m trying to portray, but mostly I just like playing with words and seeing what I can come up with. If you read my about page, you’ll see that the name of the game is having fun. I’ll often trade a
sentence that makes sense for a sentence that sounds good, but I think that if I can get the story across in a way that makes sense in
an almost poetic fashion, then it makes for good reading.

8. Bharat: You have had two degrees to your credit, what actually inspired you into an entirely different streak. Also, apparently writing and designing are your strengths, both are demanding in their own respects - does that ever trickle you into pressure, if it does, then what motivates you out?

Cory: Fortunately (or unfortunately), I can never tie myself down to one interest. As you can see by the topics that my site covers, there are a lot of things that interest me, and I’ve always said that I like to know a little bit about a lot of things, instead of knowing a lotta
bit about a little bit of things. Since blogging is a very writing and designing intensive thing, I like to think that both are my strengths, but as you said, both are also very demanding tasks. Sometimes I do feel the pressure of stress, but when that happens, I tend to get more rather than less focused. I’ve never really been one to ’stress out’, so when the going gets tough, I get going. If I have to pass on a method of motivation though, I would say to prioritize,
execute, and move on. If you can just get going, things will eventually work themselves out, and you’ll look back on it as a lesson learned, rather than a disaster avoided.

9. Yashpal: What are your future plans with respect to DidntYouHear? Where do you see DidntYouHear in the next five years?

Cory: Future plans for Didn’t You Hear are to continue doing what I’m doing. I’m always trying to find ways to improve the site, both in terms of content, and in terms of design, so I’m always experimenting and testing to see what works. I also want to focus more on creating
original content. I have really enjoyed the posts that I wrote from scratch, and I think they’re valuable to my readers, so I want to
continue to put out content that is unique and interesting. In the next five years, I would like to see Didn’t You Hear become a
successful blog that I can work on full time, and hopefully hire people to work on the site as well. I would love to split the separate parts of my site off into a blog network of sorts, and let each one develop into its own community, but that’s farther down the
line. At the very least though, I’d like to still be blogging and still be enjoying blogging in five years. If that’s the case, then I’ll call the Didn’t You Hear adventure a success.

10. Team: Your views on BornRich & Instablogs Network?

Cory: I love BornRich, and I think it’s the best place to go for news
about “one day” products. (As in: One day I’d love to own one of
those.) I think the design is great, the writing is top notch, and
the number of great links is tough to beat. I think that Instablogs
Networks lives up to its motto, and is a great way to “bring bloggers
and readers closer”. I love the way blogs bring people closer
together, and I think that anything that helps in that regard is a
good thing.

RAPID FIRE ROUND :-

1. You favorite quote from Ling Woo, played by Lucy Liu in Ally Mcbeal
a. “Would you be quiet? Some of us have eardrums.” - to a person with Tourette syndrome.
b. To Richard, on pretending to be a blind woman: “What? It’s not like they can see me.”
c. To a boy who believes in Santa Claus: “Are you retarded, Jacob?”
d. “I’m rich. I only go into work to wear my outfits.”

Cory: To Richard, on pretending to be a blind woman: “What? It’s not like they can see me.”

2. Best Horror Movie
a. Scream b. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
c. The Exorcist d. Dawn of the Dead e. Others

Cory: Others (For some strange reason I love Final Destination)

3. Best Car to Own As a Second Car
a. Toyota b. Mercedes E-Class c. Ford Mustang d. BMW e. Others

Cory: Ford Mustang (The first car I ever owned was a 1965 Mustang, so
I’d love to have one for the weekends.)

4. Your best car chase scene of all time is from?
a. Ronin b. Transporter 2 c. Bullitt d. Run Lola Run e. Others

Cory: Bullitt (This was the scene that started them all, and despite the
number of hubcaps that fall off, the number of shifts Steve McQueen makes, and the number of times that Mustang narrowly misses
destruction, it’s still hard to beat a chase scene that lasts for over a half hour.)

5. If you have to choose the Greatest Philosopher, whom it would it
be. (No you can’t choose yourself)
a.) Confucius whose philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity.
b.) Jean-Paul Sartre who recognized a connection between the principles of existentialism and the more practical concerns of social and political struggle.
c.) Aristotle’s scientific methodology and natural philosophy.
d.) Socrates dialectic method of inquiry or method of elenchos.
e.) Plato for his theories on Platonic realism, Theory of Forms, Epistemology etc.
f.) Any other

Cory: Aristotle’s scientific methodology and natural philosophy. (I think that Aristotle is the greatest philosopher because he wrote on such a wide variety of topics. Like myself, Aristotle was interested
in anything and everything, and he saw the world through a different set of eyes than everyone else. He set the foundation for many
philosophers to come, and his thoughts and ideas still inspire our thoughts and ideas today, which is amazing considering the
advancement that have been made since his time.

6. Which is the most exciting feature in OS X Leopard
a.) Time Machine b.) Dashboard Widgets
c.) Multiple Desktops Workspaces (Spaces)
d.) Quicklook in the Finder e.) Others

Cory: Time Machine (I’m terrible at remembering to back up my files,
even though I lost a large group of pictures to a hard drive crash
once, so an automatic backup solution is a godsend.)

7. Favorite Paris Hilton quote
a.) I’m an actress, a brand, a businesswoman. I’m all kinds of stuff.
b.) I’m totally normal. I think it’s obnoxious when people demand limos or bodyguards. I eat at McDonald’s or Taco Bell. My parents always taught us to be humble. We’re not spoiled.
c.) “Wal-Mart... do they like make walls there?”
d.) “I don’t really think, I just walk.”
e.) “Every woman should have four pets in her life. A mink in her closet, a jaguar in her garage, a tiger in her bed, and a jackass who pays for everything. “

Cory: I’m an actress, a brand, a businesswoman. I’m all kinds of stuff. (Despite her airhead image, I think that Paris Hilton is one of the best self promoters of our time. She managed to turn her life into a soap opera that people tune into religiously, and make millions in
the process, so I think that we all have something to learn from the bimbo blond.)

8. Your Favorite quote?

Cory: Mahatma Ghandi: You must be the change you wish to see in the world. (If we all lived like that, I think the world would be a better place.)

Finally, we “Thanks” Cory for entrhalling us with a wonderful interview and wish him All the Best for his future.