The Blogging Mindset
Note: the following is quite meta. If the art of blogging doesn’t interest you, you can feel free to skip. But I feel like enough people run into and/or feel the same issue that I describe below these days that it’s worth writing a bit about. I also think it’s part of a continued macro-trend for blogging.Last week, Mark Zuckerberg dropped a bomb. Essentially: “screw the news feed, and the billions of dollars we make each quarter on advertising, we’re going to focus on privacy going forward.” Or, at least, that’s how it read to some. To others, it read more like: “screw all of you who have given us nothing but grief for the past few quarters, we’re going to be talking non-stop about privacy going forward, while also still making billions each quarter off of advertising”. To others still, it read more like: “screw everyone with the above kind of takes, this is a sincere move into the next phase of our business, and while the old one will remain, this will be our legitimate focus”.
There are other interpretations as well.
That should surprise no one, because this is the internet. There are effectively an infinite number of interpretations on any given topic. It’s the fool who tries to read all of them. While it’s also the fool who does not.
I found myself thinking about this notion this past weekend while trying to read through all of the takes. And I found myself reading through all of the takes because that’s what I increasingly do these days. Back in the day, it was my job to be FIRST(!) (or as close to first as humanly possible) to write up any story. When it’s not a legitimate scoop, this is problematic for all sorts of reasons. It boils down to the essence of the “hot take”.
But I don’t have time for that world any more. Nor would I want to operate in that world any more. At the same time, I recognize that I’ve swung too far the other way. Basically, I now feel like I can’t write about anything unless I’ve read as much as I possibly can about a topic.
This is great for a term paper. It is awful for an actual opinion. With enough takes ingested, your own view will be smothered into submission. Sure, you’re more likely to not piss off the one or two or ten people who will always yell at you that you clearly didn’t read their FIRST(!) take. But you’ll have basically nothing to show for it. A vanilla tome, at best.
I recognized this long ago when writing about Apple. If I spent too much time reading over other thoughts and reviews, my own became weaker, not stronger, as a result. This is, it would seem, at least partially human nature. Every situation has nuance and taking in more views moves you ever closer to the middle of any topic. But it’s also just boring. Not to mention a lot of work!
All of this is to say that I think I’m going to start doing for everything what I have done for aforementioned Apple topics. And actually, have done before seeing movies for a while. That is, wait to read the other takes until after I’ve formed my own opinion. I have a link blog (read: newsletter) to link to great takes/thoughts eventually, I don’t need to do that in an initial post.¹
This move is also selfish: I wish to write more. When I think about what is stopping me from writing more, it’s often the amount of time needed to read all of the takes I feel like I must read before weighing in on something myself.
In many regards, this is a dangerous path forward. Again, ingesting more information helps insure better information, or, at least, insure you’re less likely to screw something up or miss something. On the other hand, it calls back to the days when blogging wasn’t meant to be about writing fully-formed, feature articles that might be found in The New York Times or the like.
These days, Twitter is far more like that world than blogging is — for better and worse. And while I use it for that purpose from time-to-time too, I just like writing in a slightly longer form, tweetstorms be damned.²
Incidentally, it was another specific post about the Zuckerberg manifesto that got me thinking about this: Fred Wilson’s. I’ve always admired the way Fred has been able to keep things quite casual (not to mention relatively brief) despite years of blogging baggage built up (which have undoubtedly tempted him more towards the formalities I talk about above — it has pushed many, many people in that direction beyond just myself. Blogging is all grown up!).
Anyway, I’ll write a take on the Zuckerberg manifesto tomorrow.³ And yes, it will be a long while after the document itself was published. And yes, my takes will undoubtedly overlap with the takes of many others. And no, I probably won’t link to any of them. And yes, I’ll do that later, for some of the best ones, in the newsletter.⁴ And yes, I hope this leads to more writing.
¹ Unless, of course, I happen to read something that trips me into a new line of thinking. I often “riff” against others’ ideas, with full credit, and enjoy it greatly. Linking is a key component of blogging, of course, and always has been. This is more about “newsy” topics.
² Still great for trial balloons on what to write about though.
³ Mentioning this is really just another trick to try to force myself to write again tomorrow. I may not actually have time as I’m quite busy. But I’ll try!
⁴ Or on Twitter!
