Blogging and Paper Clips
Posted on June 25th, 2007by Michael Gray in Random Thoughts
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I was reading two posts yesterday that you would think were completely unconnected, however were really amazingly close in concept.
The first comes from Seth’s Godin who writes
Having a blog is pretty daunting, especially if you don’t like blank paper and are the sort of person that hates falling behind. I can imagine that the idea of posting 50 or 300 times a year is a little bit nuts for many people.
I mention blogging as a solution to a lot of different people and the response I get varies considerably. Some people like the idea and just need a little confidence boost to get them over the hump. Some people look at it and wonder where am I going to come up with things to write about regularly, they wonder how it’s humanly possible to come up with over a hundred things a year that are interesting that haven’t already been said. Others look at it with fear. Who is going to write something, who will look at it and approve it before hand, how do we make sure we don’t offend someone when we publish, and what if we make a mistake, are we ruined and will I lose my job?
The second post comes from renegade Disney Imagineers who write at Re-Imagineering: Managing the Creative Factory. They talk about the difficulties managing a creative team, and people who were successful doing it.
They all had a great leader and a commitment to quality product. And although they ran their businesses like factories, they realized that they were different than other factories that made things like paper clips. The difference was that these factories ran on the creative process.
But I’ve got a theory that they are both talking about the same kind of people. The people who run efficient paper clip factories, would be terrible managers of a creative staff, and look at blogs as a festering pussball of unmanageable inconsistencies.
I like blogging, I really do. I love the blank piece of paper of love the possibility that I can produce something great, touching, though provoking, or something that might entirely piss someone off. Sure DG will pick on me for using run-on sentences, and my lack of properly placed commas and periods. Sure Rae will make fun of me for spelling like a monkey typing with his tail. And sure Lisa will give me a hard time privately, secretly trying to figure out where I went to school, and make sure none of her relatives offspring go there and learn my bad English and grammar habits (like starting run on sentences with the word “and”).
If I had a boss who was monitoring my blogging I might get in trouble for meandering non SEO focused post like this, because where’s the return and who’s going to link to it or care. But there’s the point, every act doesn’t have to justify itself, sometimes it’s just a tiny little part of the bigger picture that helps me focus, keep a style, and hone my voice. Ultimately you want what you do to justify the time you put into it, but the occasional side step and even backward step should be embraced and welcomed as they are part of making sure you are on the right track and moving in the right direction.
Sphere: Related Content
June 25th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
It appears that women also have a big influence on you yes? Combine this with your interest in shoes, Disney, that slightly whispy voice and well, er, yeah.
I tend to rip pages out all the time from my blog because I am not happy with them. I have even come close to throwing the entire thing in the trash but then something bugs me and I blog about it. Looking forward to losing interest in SEO and moving on the the next challenge, blogging is about learning and growing…
June 25th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
We’ve all been there Aaron. In fact, I did throw my first blog in the trash. How I regret that decision now.
Blogging certainly is about learning and growing. For the short amount of time that I have had my new blog online, I have learned something new and useful every single day.
June 25th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
“…every act doesn’t have to justify itself…”
That certainly makes a lot of sense to me.
Sometimes, the little “nothings”, or “misplacements” together create that special unique feel that is able to carry a bit of who we are into our writing.
I have been reading your blog for quite some time, and I truly believe that this is the case for you.