ON A BLOGGER'S ANGST

BLOG DEEP THOUGHTS?

As a relatively new blogger, I can totally empathize with uber-blogger and VC Joi Ito's lament today, titled "Becoming Boring", focusing on this great, central question:

"Do you think I should post silly and sometimes not-so-well-developed posts or do you think this rigor of taking more responsibility and being more politically correct is a good thing?"

It's a key question, one that I'm sure every blogger faces after a while...this is evidenced in the almost 50 comments in response to Joi's post above, that are also worth reading if you share an interest in this question.  Long-time VC blogger Fred Wilson expresses a similar ennui with his blogging habits.

Generally, I like putting together "put together" posts, at least to my eye.  However, every once in a while, I'd also like to put a post that's not altogether there, but...half-baked, I guess.  It may be a riff, defined by dictionary.com as " A clever or inventive commentary or remark", or it may be a riff as defined by John Richardson,

“Those little riffs that had seemed to have such sparkle over drinks... look all too embarrassing in cold print”

In the worst case, I sometimes just want to post a link to something that I find interesting on the web, but my innate work ethic frowns on that as a "lazy man's link-blog".

So, in any case, my solution to this dilemma is to create a new category, which I'm titling "HALF-BAKED RIFFING", leaving for the reader to decide if it's half-baked, a clever riff, or a riff fallen flat.  I'll also flat it in the sub-title of the post, so you'll know what to expect. 

Any feedback of course, is always appreciated...thanks.

P.S.  Since this post, there've been a few reactions to Joi's original post that I found interesting.  One was Stephen Pierzchala's encouraging words to Fred.   

Also, Lawrence Lessig, is expressing another form of communication anxiety and exhaustion, which I can intensely empathize with after almost a decade of evangelizing the commercialization of the Internet around the world, with over 60% of each year on the road. 

He is committing to take a step back, which I think is immensely healthy and critical in rejuvenating one's creative energies.  It's just so tough to see this obvious solution when one is in the midst of an un-ending series of commitments wrapped around a cause you truly believe in...it's a terrific post I encourage all to take a look at.

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