Suggestica goes live
Just a quick pointer that Rajesh Setty’s latest project, Suggestica, goes live today. There’s also a companion blog here.
The official elevator pitch:
Suggestica aims to bring the best suggestions (books, audio, video etc.) from the “Trusted Authorities” in their disciplines. Our goal is to create a new kind of web with less clutter and less noise. We are starting with books but will soon expand to other categories.
I had an opportunity to get a sneak peek a while back, and I think the idea is pretty cool. The basic idea is to create a site that utilizes recommendations from experts across disciplines and across resources. If you have an interest in leadership, for instance, you can browse Warren Bennis’ (just an example–I haven’t looked to see if they’ve got Bennis, but I wouldn’t be surprised) recommendations on the subject, and bounce around from there. They’re starting with books, but have plans to expand out into other media. Definitely worth checking out and bookmarking.
I spent a little time poking around on Suggestica, and I think it has quite a bit of potential. It’s a little lean right now (just a function of its newness, I suspect), but they’ve managed to start with some pretty impressive guru-types. I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop.
More than anything else, this design hyper-focuses the paradigm in any defined field. I’m not opposed to this process, but it needs a complementary equal process.
So while Warren Bennis is very insightful, he knows what he knows and he’s a dominant “guru” in the field. He might help you find things at the edges of what he already knows, but it’s going to be painted on a canvas of what he knows and understands. He’s less likely to fill in blind spots because…he’s blind to his blind spots, as we all are. He knows “too much”.
I’m not suggesting the opposite — people with no knowledge. But I’d like to see fiction recommendations from Warren Bennis. HR interview recommendations from Pfeffer & Sutton. That is, insightful people pointing out resources they used to expand their vision to related, adjacent fields. Much more value from people with knowledge, but not so much they can’t see emerging info.