Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Jorge wrote in to ask about the contradiction (it seems) between Poke the Box, which argues that you must consistently ship innovations to the market (and frequently fail), and The Dip, which argues that quitting a project in the middle is dumb, that the real success comes after the quitters have left the building.

I don’t see a conflict.

The failures I’m talking about in Poke the Box are initial interactions with the market, about the ability and willingness to appear stupid in front of others.

In the Dip, I’m arguing that big successes happen when people with good taste see the failures, evolve and keep pushing anyway. The good taste comes when you know the difference between failures that are better off forgotten and failures that are merely successes that haven’t grow up yet.

A single blog post is an example of poking the box.

Sticking with a blog for seven years is pushing through the Dip.

Related: a reader asks if “Go, make something happen,” is sufficient. After all, there’s a lot of junk in the world, a lot of misguided, wasteful, mediocre junk. My argument is that the hard part is deciding to do something, anything. Once you’ve decided to move, at least you’re going. Might as well make it worth the trip. People who care (and who are wiling to fail) will likely turn that effort into something worthwhile.

Are you looking to get a job in social media? Of course, we’d highly recommend jumping into this lively line of work, but the field is highly competitive and there are lots of people looking. This infographic from online training software company mindflash.com can help you stand out from the crowd.

Even though spending five minutes might not be enough time to put you on the road to working in a social media paradise, there’s sound advice within this infographic.

We’ve already firmly established on these pages that social media can help you score a new job, so you might as well use social media to score a job in social media, right?

The best news is, social media is in such a booming stage right now, hundreds of big companies with lots of money are looking to get into the game, and they all need experts — perhaps someone like you. Take a look at this infographic, check our job postings to help you find a gig in social media, and then let us know in the comments if you have more suggestions:

Infographic courtesy mindflash.com

If you’re looking for an iPad 2 case, might as well get one that has a keyboard nestled inside. This Logitech Zaggmate Keyboard Case for iPad 2 protects your iPad while offering you a stand and keyboard at the same time.

Shipping on April 19, this aluminum case stands up your iPad 2 in either portrait or landscape modes, and its keyboard, rechargeable via USB, pairs up with your iPad via Bluetooth. The best news is, the case and keyboard are a mere .54 inches thin, and that’s not going to add much thickness to your sleek tablet. By the way, if you have an original iPad, Zagg makes a similar case for that, too, with or without the keyboard.

Logitech is offering this case with the cooperation of Zagg, also known for its “invisible shield” screen protectors for various devices. According to The Wall Street Journal, this mashup of Logitech and Zagg is the result of agreement the two companies made recently, where Logitech will be marketing, manufacturing and distributing the case, while Zagg retains the right to sell it on its website.

At its retail price of $100, there are certainly lots of cheaper stands — and even aluminum cases such as the gorgeous Joby Ori — available for the iPad 2. But this is the only one we’ve seen that gives you all three functions — stand, keyboard and case — in one attractive package.

After years of reading newspapers, I’ve never seen a paper that said, “sorry, not much happened yesterday, so today’s paper is shorter than usual.” In fact, the length of the paper is virtually always driven by the number of ads, not by the amount of news (wars, elections and disasters are the exception). Editors are told how many pages of stories they can run by the publisher, who bases it on ads sold.

The web, of course, doesn’t have the problem of paying for paper, so the length of a website isn’t driven by ads, it’s driven by reader attention and writer fatigue. If you run less material, then readers with attention to spare will just go read more on someone else’s site. Hence the temptation to write more and more and more and try to milk pageviews.

The same math works for direct marketers and brochures. Since it’s free to keep writing or to make that video ever longer, it’s tempting to do so. Might as well keep talking until the reader surrenders and buys something.

Here’s the problem with that math: people like to be done.

Sure, there will always be a few who want more, but you’re often better off giving the majority a sense of mastery and a platform to take action.

Just because you can write more doesn’t mean you should.