[Human Factor] When Blungry Blog!
I was inspired by this post on 0xDECAFBAD to think about the art of blogging and I'd like to share these thoughts with any other potential blogger burnout candidates. Here is how I answered this particular author (with minor edits added):
| Some time ago, your blog caught my attention -- one out of thousands -- and I added it to my rather large blogroll. My blogroll is one way I try to tap into the flow from that open ten inch informational water main we are supposed to take our sips from, these day (firehoses just won't cut it anymore). There was something different and significant in your choices of material and your presentation of technical ideas. Actually, I put your blog on my top level and looked forward to your new material. I admit to wondering what was up with you, because I have noticed the obvious dropoff in your posts, in quality and quantity. So, I do want to let you know that your contributions to the technical blogging aether have at least influenced one senior software architect. Blogging, to me, is an opportunity for which a great many people in the past would have given an arm or leg. To be able to self-publish? Not to have to wait in line only to be told that your thoughts are "not commercially acceptable at this time?" No insensitive or incompetent editors or rejection slips? No censors? Hmmmmmm. What is that worth to an active, creative mind? As with any art, the deepest problems come in finding something of worth to say. Craft without content, technique without point, writing without meaning, playing sounds without feeling the music, blogging without inspiration -- these dull both the art and the creator. When you have nothing to say, don't blog. Write or read or think in private to explore the endless well of ideas that will teach you what you, uniquely, should -- and will want to -- communicate. If blogging is not an art that helps you achieve meaningful contact with other fellow humans, then I suggest finding another art that will. We humans have a great many arts from which to choose! Definitely, do not feel imposed upon to blog. This is one possible method to change input into output, adding the value of your mind, heart, and soul in the process. My final advice comes from Zen: "When hungry, eat; when blungry, blog!" |