I stumbled across 43things a while back and didn’t think much of the idea. I could see the utility of the site but could also think of about a zillion other ways to achieve the same end. That, and the first time I checked out the site I walked away thinking that the process of listing things I wanted to do without being able to gain any benefit of context or connections or communication just didn’t seem all that worthwhile.

Today I dug a bitter deeper into 43things and its sibling site All Consuming. The AllConsuming site brings a bit of context and connection to things into the mix, which is interesting. Additionally, coupled with the other sibling site, 43People it brings an element of communication or community into the site. I’m not convinced that these are the absolute right tools to bring goals, community and content together but they are certainly a good way to blow an hour on the web.

I just finished Fooled by Randomness (courtesy of Kent) and entered it into the All Consuming site. After a bit of fiddling around I was able to see who else just read that book and what they moved on to next. I ended up getting an interesting suggestion out of the surfing, so maybe it was worthwhile. (I did however discover that since Amazon stopped displaying ISBNs on its site, my Providence Public Library plugin stopped working. ehhck. Now I need to rewrite that.)

There are so many options available to us when it comes to where to focus our attention, especially w/r/t the arts. The triad of 43things/people/allconsuming might help to focus with more intent. That couldn’t be a bad thing.