Made With MoSCoW

Disclaimer: I wrote the lion's share of this blog post 32 months ago - I either lost the thread or the motivation. I can't recall. But in an effort to clean up a few years worth of unfinished drafts for this blog - I'm going to try and find the point, and publish anyway.

I've had a love-hate relationship with social media from the get-go. I'm confident in saying that, for me, there is little of value to be gained from most online networks. It feeds the worst of me. The Id. In fact, no matter how sincere, I tend only to see the Id in others when they share online.

Yet, it has yielded moments that have shaped the trajectory of my life and provided memories I cherish. My career was fueled by connections made on Twitter. I reached my fittest ever thanks to like-minded enthusiasts on Instagram. I'm still active (as of the original writing of this post) in a Slack group of highly opinionated audiophiles. But I nuked my Facebook. I'm not entirely sure why I keep my Twitter active; I don't log in. It's just there. I've let my original Instagram wither, only logging in to get a glimpse into my kids' lives as they begin their journey of adulthood just out of my easy sight. I post when traveling, mostly as a "proof of life" for friends and family.

Somehow, this preface came about when a friend shared with me the MoSCoW prioritization framework: Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have. And it inspired a version I coined MiNNoW: Must-have, Need-to-have, and Want-to-have.

Trying to make sense of how I started this post almost 3 years ago with my typical anti-social-media angle, I can't help but notice: social media doesn't fit into any of these groups. Maybe MiNNoW was a streamlined prioritization framework for myself. There's no should or could. What value is there in listing the things I "won't have?"

I want to be able to peek into the lives of a very small group of people, and social media is a way to do that. But that's it. I wonder what else I fill my days with would lift out with ease because it doesn't fit within MiNNoW.