Blog: 
Apr
Mar
Feb
Blog, Relaunched
Jan 2008
Dec
We need to return to principles and restate our objectives. We must refocus, reassess priorities,
and circle back to our core competencies. It's time for a bold new direction for this blog. That's
why I'm changing the name. From now on, you'll be reading Turning Left Against Traffic.
Any relaunch with a new name has to have a new logo, right?
What's in a Name
Selecting a moniker for a regular column is like picking a name for your band. You want something
hip and memorable, something unique and intriguing. The name should exude the suave insouciance of the
members, who wave off accolades and screaming fans with disinterest. When people hear the name of
your band for the first time, they should feel instant kinship, begin talking about your soulful,
melancholy lyrics, and find themselves with inexplicable longing to buy your albums. To summarize,
the name of your band should be hot.
At the same time, you can't go with something completely off-the-wall. A random string of letters
doesn't work as a headliner: "TONIGHT-FOR THEIR FIRST LIVE PERFORMANCE IN CLEVELAND...ADFRESAF43JH!" The
name must have a certain ineffable quality, a distant connection to pop culture, obscure histories or
everyday life. The reference of the name also refines the focus. There's no way the uninformed could
mistake the heavy metal group Megadeth for a gospel quartet, or think that They
Might Be Giants only writes serious songs about the AIDS epidemic. Great bands have great
names. I want this column to be great, so it needs a great name too.
Like a Carrying Handle
Catchy, clever names are much handier than anything purely descriptive or factual. While there is considerable information
density in a title like "Gitie and Ron's Blog About Birdwatching", switching to "Winged Hearts" benefits everybody.
This is less words and more impact. There's no mention of the authors, who while I'm sure are perfectly nice people,
aren't as famous or important as their chosen topic. And finally, swapping out a perfunctory term like "birdwatching"
for something romantic and effervescent like "Winged Hearts" tells you more about the character of the blog and the
authors than any carefully balanced headline ever could. A handle is better.
However, that doesn't mean a handle still can't be terrible. The old name of this blog, "Around the Web",
was patently awful. The phrase is common—Google claims it appears
600,000 times
online. Ironically; it's too descriptive and precise. Something called "Around the Web" is obviously a
regular roundup of what's happening online. It's easy to dismiss by title alone. I never liked it, and now
I'm kicking it out of my domain.
What's this about traffic?
Turning Left Against Traffic is the new name for this blog. It's designed to inspire an experience familiar
to almost anyone living in the civilized world, the uncomfortable moment of looking both ways at opposing, oncoming
cars, and then committing to inject yourself into the stream. It's the greatest rush of adrenaline most of us
experience in our typical day. We risk a deadly side-impact from both directions as we zoom across multiple lanes. We
hastily judge distances and place our trust in the accelerator. Turning left against traffic is that familiar, yet
weird difficulty of being forced against the flow.
Likewise, the paradox of turning left against traffic is that we can always sacrifice time and increase our
personal safety by taking the long way around. Every harrowing left turn affronting the oncoming lane could
have easily been a calm right turn followed by a controlled reversal at the next intersection. We choose
to turn left against traffic, cursing the other cars and the city planners, waiting impatiently for an
acceptable moment, whitening our knuckles as we plunge, grill-first toward our vehicular destiny.
Turning Left Against Traffic will continue to cover technology, commerce and society, with an emphasis on
the problems and solutions of design. Like the near-universal experience of the name, it will uncover stories and
systems familiar and frustrating to everyone. It will advise you when to risk that left turn or choose for the more
conservative option, when to demand an overpass should be built and when the environmental conditions suggest that
left turns ought to be forbidden. This blog will not review new cars nor traffic signal technologies, but how they
contribute to the everyday challenges of life. Consider it your morning coffee before hitting the road.
Welcome to the new blog. Enjoy the ride.
Further Reading:
Would you like to leave a comment?
Read this.
###
