As a strong advocate for Twitter, I have to say this is the best that’s come of it thus far: after loaning Ramit’s book I Will Teach You to Be Rich to a friend, who subsequently had her purse stolen with the book inside, I tweeted about it and Ramit responded personally, offering to replace my copy of the book and give one to my friend as well.

If I weren’t a fan of his before, I certainly would be now.

Other things Twitter has done for me:

• Gotten a response about a technical issue with Mozy
• Gotten a response from Rhapsody that led to me being included in a private beta of the next version of their player
• Multiple personal responses from record labels and musicians that I respect
• Getting to know my girlfriend better before we started dating
• Learning the power of brevity
• The ability to track last year’s Los Angeles fires in real time for a friend who was visiting me while his family was facing evacuation

If you aren’t using Twitter, maybe now’s a good time to start.

I have a lot of friends that are just beginning their life after college. I feel privileged that I’ve had a few more years of experience so I can (hopefully) help them learn some fiscal responsibility.

A recent post by Ramit Sethi on his blog I Will Teach You To Be Rich made me feel good about myself. The flow chart diagram he has on there is, with no exaggeration, exactly how I handle my finances. In the current times, having things set up that way has made me feel safer about my future than many people around me are. (And I’m not saying that to be cocky at all, trust me.)

Sethi recently wrote a book by the same name. In it he outlines a six-week program to get your money under control. I haven’t read it, and I’m pretty sure most would be a repeat for me since I’ve followed his blog for years, but I do own a copy. If any of you, my friends, need help learning to be responsible with your money, I will gladly loan it to you.

A lot of the reason the country is in an economic mess is because people didn’t know or understand what they were doing with their money. Be responsible for your own future and the future of your country and get on it.

Have you ever noticed how everyone seems to have “the answer” to the healthcare crisis or the economic meltdown? The problem is, they usually don’t see above their own situations to the larger problems. That’s why any one of our opinions is largely irrelevant.
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Everyone’s got an opinion, usually drawn from their own narrow experiences, not seeing the full picture.

This is why product managers know how difficult it is to ask their users what features they want in a product.

It’s why politicians can’t just tactically respond to what people want, but have to show leadership in what they need.

And so, someone else adds to my argument that it’s okay to not care about things you aren’t an expert at. I don’t have too strong an opinion about these financial bailouts and stimulus packages because it is such a complex situation that I can’t imagine any one person could possibly have a good response that will fix the majority of the problem (which is really the best we can hope for). Considering that not even career economists can’t agree on this, my guess is it’s beyond pretty much all of us.

I write about things like this sometimes in hopes that I might encourage others to also not care about things that are beyond their comprehension and, really, to admit that there are things beyond their comprehension. Try it sometime. It’s kind of nice.