Amanda Palmer - Wind-Up Twitter Machine!

I was reading Elvis Costello's new book (he's a funny, intelligent, interesting writer), but then took a detour to read Amanda Palmer's book "The Art of Asking." Amanda is super-famous for her Kickstarter campaign for one of her records. She raised over a million dollars, with over 25,000 individuals donating to her campaign.

Amanda is a very, very unique individual. Her book has a few  simple, powerful ideas. Probably the most intriguing, is that it's OK to ask. It's a powerful tool. And surprisingly if you are open and honest, lots of people will be open to helping you, if you are willing to reach out. And Amanda has really lived this idea. Amanda has totally surrendered herself to "the crowd." Crowd-surfing, crowd-sourcing, crowd-funding. 

Human beings are social animals. We need each other. To ask for help is a risk, it's scary, there's the looming fear of rejection but all of us need and want to connect to others. No man or woman is an island. There are no "self-made" people. We come from a long line of others and those others help make us who we are. We can connect, it's as simple as being forthright, honest, vulnerable and willing to ask.

Amanda gave a TED talk that now has over 7 million views that pretty much contains the essence of the book. The book fills in details. You learn more about Amanda. Maybe sometimes you learn more about Amanda than you want to, but that's the way she lives her life. She shares. She tweets. Always. Obsessively. She is a master of sharing and "over-sharing." 

She certainly has used social media to the max. And she was ahead of the wave. Early adopter. Surfing social media for all it's worth. Pretty amazing story. She started out as a living statue, one of those folks dressed up, out on the street, performing for the crowd. And then she has gone on to a pretty impressive career, maybe not so much in music, but definitely in the "asking" and "self-promoting" biz.

I did wonder somewhere in the book if all this asking and openness and over-sharing is a bit too much? What's personal? What's private? When is it best not to ask the crowd for advice or help? And what happens if the crowd decides they don't like you, and don't want to help you? Amanda has some stories about that too.

When is enough, too much? I guess Amanda will find out. And she will tell us about it, in detail. For sure. Check her Twitter feed, she's probably tweeting right now.