"We are a land of idiots. Idiots care about who is following them. Idiots care more about celebrity news than science. Or technology. Or geeky stuff.

Idiots try to rank things based on who has the most followers. Idiots can't be bothered with thinking about adding value like Tim O'Reilly or Jay Rosen, all guys who teach you something in nearly every tweet and who I can't remember ever caring about how many followers they have."

--Robert Scoble, a wonderful person and amazingly hardworking blogger who is right that it all comes down to the split between conversations and sharp marketing for some people and that the most followed people do not neccessarily stand as the thought leaders.