I know that numbers are important, especially if they are the "right kind" of numbers. Trying to sift through all the daily incoming new stuff is impossible and a waste of my time. It's like standing in a rainstorm and trying to find a few favorite raindrops. I spend more times looking at blogs and trying to learn about the person and their motivation for actually being here, and I do find a few who appeal to me and I follow them. One, just yesterday, came from reading an adjacent comment on Pappa-Pepper's blog. It detracted my attention in one of those "squirrel" moments, but it was intellectually satisfying. It is a slow process but it slowly gains input for my daily incoming posts. Time consuming, but building a foundation so I don't waste so much time reading empty, non-productive nonsense others are turning out. I can never be on top because I don't have the time and am unwilling to pay a bot to make me look like something I am not.