So… I have decided to start blogging. I have blogged in the past for Soliton Cyber & Analytics, but that website was shut down when the company was closed. Maybe some of those thoughts will resurface, but I’ll try to keep repetition down to a minimum.
Why Blog? Like everything in life, many aspects combine to create the motivation that leads to motion:
- Ego: I feel like I have interesting and important things to say. It would diminish the world to keep my blathering to myself. Putting it in writing lessens the burden on my family that has to hear my thoughts if I don’t express them here.
- Memetics: Ideas are the new genetics and I want so spread my intellectual children. I will definitely explore this concept more in the future.
- Future Options: This is a seed for potential affiliate sales, books to publish, SEO to practice, Social Media to learn, and perhaps a very public interview for a cool future job. Not that I have huge ambitions yet. Perhaps enough money to buy lunch? Or at least write off some pleasurable expenses (Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.). Even if it crashes and burns, I’ll get some education from the experience.
- Self identity: “A writer writes, always.” A teacher teaches. A marketer spreads a message. A businessman takes chances. A jack of all trades needs to learn new trades.
Why not blog? Or, why didn’t I start blogging earlier? To each and every motivation, there are opposing forces that lead to uncertainty, delay, or procrastination.
- Life is short: Only so many hours left in my hourglass. Shouldn’t I be taking that trip to Europe I always wanted to take? Or planning my financial future? Or working out (oh yeah…)?
- Ego/Alienation: What if no one like what I write? What if friends I value are offended? Of course, if you have been my friend for some time, you probably know I have an a-hole streak that bubbles to the surface now and then. But if I don’t say anything, maybe no one else will know.
- Sloth: Doing anything right takes work. Where do I host? What graphics should I use? Should I do different URLs for each topic? Should I stick to one topic even though my brain can’t seem to be one tracked anyway? Can I keep it up when it gets harder? It would be so much easier to check off some of those videos in my Netflix cue… See above: Life is Short.
- Social Media Allergy – It’s not that I don’t care, I just don’t have the energy and time to care about EVERYTHING. I get emotionally exhausted at other’s distress and really hungry when I see their food porn. To make this work, I need to participate more in Social Media. See above: Life is Short, Sloth.
- Self Identify: An introvert stays the hell away from public exposure. An engineer designs things people can actually use. A family man spends more time with his family and not his computer.
Well, despite my selfish and yet reasonable reservations, I’ll press forward. At the risk of exposing an undiagnosed Attention Deficit Disorder, I will be writing on the topics that interest me enough to have something to say: Marketing & Selling, Stocks & Investing, Technology Paranoia for the Luddite Within Us All, Movies, Books, Music, the fate of the USA, Self-Identity & Psychology, and random issues that stir up enough ichor I must preserve my sanity by spewing my thoughts outward into the internet. On this site or on some future site yet to spawn. That said, I do have goal to prevent pure self-indulgence and boring anyone with enough fortitude to read more than one paragraph.
- Keep a light tone. If it is too serious for me to have any fun or sneak in a joke, then I’m too close to the topic and probably unable to keep any of the other goals below.
- Stay balanced: Too many people are slipping into self-righteous radicalism. This is probably going to be the topic of a blog in the future, however, see below.
- Express myself, but not at the expense of others.
- Avoid half-baked ideas. Do the research. I have seen blogs, tweets and articles that proclaim an “fact” and expect others to simply believe it. No evidence, no references. We want to believe people we like, but that does not make it a fact. I hope to do better – at least most of the time.
I hope that these thoughts will entertain you, my reader. If not, I’m sure you’ll realize that life is short and look for something else to do. Candy Crush anyone?