Last week, I wrote about how I thought the iPod Shuffle was goofy, because I frequently skip songs. Today, Doc Searls points to a Shuffle user who’s having the opposite experience:
I have about 10,000 songs or so. As you might expect I rarely get around to listening to most of them. I could dump them all in a big iPod…and use the shuffle feature, but when you have 10,000 songs you are always compelled to see what’s next, whether it’s better than this. When you have 100 songs, and A) have no idea what comes next and B) haven’t heard 60 of them in a long long time, if ever, you tend to listen. At least I do. It’s like a radio station in a world with one frequency whose program director and listener are the same person. I never hit NEXT; for the first time in a long time, I listen. I pay attention.
I don’t know–this seems to imply an attention span that I lack.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
Whatever you call it, randomizing my playlist encouraged me to listen to what came next. I have 3000+ songs in my iTunes, all from my CD collection. When I put it on shuffle, I hear some really great music that I didn’t know I had.