The Top Thinkers of Beyond the Rhetoric

As a writer, one of the biggest motivations I have is the knowledge that the words I write are being read. It’s even better when the people reading those words are engaging with the content and that’s why I really appreciate it when visitors to this blog leave comments. This opens up the conversation, adding even more value to other people who may stumble across these blog posts. And that’s why I round up the “top thinkers” of each month, acknowledging their contributions to the BTR community.

Just as he did in January and in several months before that, Ray Ebersole tops the list for February. Digging into his archives from last year, I came across a particularly compelling post on the evils of political correctness. I’ve linked to it before, but it’s worth exploring again. Do you hold back on expressing your true opinions for fear of sounding politically incorrect? Can this notion be compatible with our right to freedom of speech?

Interestingly, there was a three-way tie for second place, so I’ll just go through them in alphabetical order. It looks like Alana is still working on her website, as only the main homepage currently contains any real content. There, you’ll find an article on eco-friendly shopping bags and how you can find the right one that is actually stylish. Many places have already banned plastic shopping bags (or charge for them), so picking up a good canvas bag is quickly becoming a necessity. The ones with flat bottoms are particularly useful for groceries.

Next, we have Cheap server with a site focused on everything you’d want to know about cheap dedicated servers. One way to help keep your costs under control is to sign up for an unmetered dedicated server. While you may be inclined to believe that unmetered and unlimited are fundamentally the same thing, that may not be the case. The service provider can still limit your bandwidth and transfer speeds, so it’s important to really understand what you’re getting when you are being offered an “unmetered” service.

The third second place finisher for the month was Jim, previously known around these parts as Zagorath. Going way back to 2011, we find a post on the overcompensation for the appearance of bias. This almost ties into Ray’s post on political correctness, as it explores the lengths people will take to ensure they don’t appear to be biased. One example that Jim brings up is the world of sports. If there’s a match between Team X and Team Y, and the referee is a known supporter of Team X, he may deliberately penalize Team X more harshly so as to appear more neutral. This isn’t exactly fair, wouldn’t you say?

And rounding out the top five for the month is Vance Sova, who you may recognize from Dot Com Pho. In fact, it was a short while ago that Vance shot a video at Dot Com Pho where we discussed the future of BlackBerry and what the new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone meant to the company. They are apparently enjoying record sales, even attracting converts from iOS and Android, but I’m still not convinced that BlackBerry (formerly RIM) will return to its former glory. I’ll be happily impressed if the team in Waterloo prove me wrong though.