Dec 6, 2016

Good enough for an audience of one

I'd like to be like Scott Alexander. He's one of my personal heroes. He writes long, thoughtful, meticulously researched posts at his blog SlateStarCodex. But as near as I can tell, I'm not.

There are a lot of other writers who I admire, and who I sometimes wish to be. But near as I can tell, I'm not any of them.

(But if Andy Weir, author of "The Maritan" is right, in this story, I might be all of them. Wouldn't that be cool?)

But being me is not a bad thing to be. It's actually pretty good. But it's sometimes frustrating.

When a friend writes me an email that prompts a response I'll drop everything and spend a large block of time researching, thinking, and writing a long, meticulously worded reply. Not up to the standard of one of Scott's posts. But not total crap.

Why don't I post them?

I just asked myself that question, and here's what I told myself:

"Good enough for an email back, but not good enough to post."

For who? I have no audience. I'm just an ordinary guy who likes to write and tries to figure out the kinds of things that ordinary guys try to figure out, like The purpose of life, the universe, and everything.

Which was also not good enough to post until I wrote "The only thing that I can be certain of."

Which was also not good enough to post, so had to write this and figure out how to give myself permission to post it.

For who?

The answer has to be: I need to post for me. Only me. Period.

As of right now, the standard for what goes on this blog is being revised. Down. Dramatically down.

I'd rather post more stuff with lower quality.

I'd rather long, thoughtful, meticulously researched posts than anything else. But I'd rather post more than less.

Writing is the way that I get thinking done.

Writing makes me happy.

Having determined what I believe The purpose of life, the universe, and everything to be, my personal contribution to that purpose is writing and posting

So, time to post.

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