The Conversation

Charity Major’s post “Founder Mode” and the Art of Mythmaking opens with this:

If everybody’s already buzzing about something, I feel like chances are, everything that needs to be said is already being said by someone else, so why should I bother?

That’s how I feel, most of the time! People much smarter, or more clever, than me say stuff a lot better than I would. I don’t feel like I have much of particular value to add to any conversation.

But as I’ve written and re-written this blog post several times, I’ve come to the conclusion that that’s bullshit. For two reasons.

This blog is for me.

I write here solely for myself. I’m not trying to build an audience, maintain a brand, or push an agenda. I write for me, because I want to. Not writing anything, because “everything that needs to be said is already being said by someome else,” deprives me of the reward of focusing my thoughts, and recording them in a point in time. Even if all I might have to say is “I agree with this!” there is still long-term value to me for writing that down.

It’s always fun to go back through my post archives, and read what I had to say about something. I’ve grown a lot as a human being, and having mile markers for my growth upon which to reflect is really great.

Social media ecosystems do offer a slight nuance to writing down “I agree with this!”, by way of the “Like” button. Rather than write words on my blog, I can push a button to tell myself and the author of the original message that I liked it. And another simple button press lets me share the original item with all the people who follow me. I may be able to quote-boost, to add my own commentary to the thing, too. And there is value in doing this, to be sure. But as a person with a blog spanning back a quarter century, consolidating all these likes (or dislikes!) here provides a more centralized collection of them.

My context is unique.

Sure, smarter people than me may write better stuff about whatever’s going on. That doesn’t invalidate my own thoughts on those things. The way I interpret events, and connect them to the things I’ve read, or experienced, is personally mine. Charity’s post is all about one dude’s interview, and her response is chock full of great stuff. Her commentary is from her perspective, as a founder and CEO and participant in technical communities. I have none of those experiences! But I do have experiences and opinions relevant to many aspects of both the inciting interview and Charity’s response. I’ve read a lot of books, and learned a lot of lessons, and can frame things from my own unique perspective.

Maybe I’ll be saying the same things as other people, but I’ll probably express it differently, and draw connections to other content that they might not. These connections are worth sharing, because it may introduce more people to more stuff!

And anyone who might be following this blog might not be following those other, smarter people to whom I might link when crafting my own commentary. The network effect of the Internet is really important! I read a thing, and I write about it, linking to other commentary about that thing. People who follow me may learn of new people to follow. That’s good!

Keep writing!

So, from me to me (and also to you!), keep writing! Keep sharing thoughts. Provide context, and links, and ideas. Even if someone else said it first, or said it better.