Category: Weblogs

Be Interesting

I started blogging back in September of 2004. Sun had started urging all of its employees to blog. I had never even heard of blogging but I thought I would give it a try. Sun was an incredibly nurturing place to start blogging. There was an internal discussion list that people used to ask questions and to give hints about blogging. One of the fathers of blogging at Sun was Tim Bray. He urged Sun bloggers to follow the Sun blogging  policy that he published. Many of his precepts like "Don’t tell secrets" and "Quality Matters" are valid for anyone who blogs whether it be in a corporate setting or not. I try hard to continue to follow them.

One of the precepts of that policy was "Be interesting". It is now over three years since I started blogging. I am no longer a part of corporate America. I love blogging and my overarching goal for my blog is to be interesting. To be interesting is in fact one of my goals in life. I don’t want to bore myself and I certainly don’t want to bore others.

The question I often think about is what makes a blog interesting? Tim says

"Write What You Know ·
The best way to be interesting, stay out of trouble, and have fun is to
write about what you know."

I think that is good advice. It is also why I need to be an interesting person to write an interesting blog. One of the fun and challenging things about being retired is that I get to explore interesting on my own.  I no longer have an employer to help define what makes me interesting.

Some people consider a blog a personal journal. People who talk only about themselves are not particularly interesting. So I don’t think a log of what I do each day would work for me. I do find that people who do interesting things write interesting blogs.

The people in my blogroll to the right write blogs that I find very interesting. They are certainly good examples of  what makes a blog interesting.

I don’t have a magic answer to the ‘interesting question’ and my blog and I are a works in progress. I would really like to hear what others think makes a blog interesting. 

Free Brand new Book – Does anyone read my Blog?

In my blog posting on Sept 29 I offered to send a free copy of the new book Lincoln: The Presidential Archives to the first person who posted a comment on the blog and sent me their address. (The offer is still good.)Since no one has taken me up  on the offer I must assume that no one wants the book or no one reads my blog. I get a few comments on my blog so I know that it sometimes gets read. I think this illustrates what I have suspected for a while. Most people probably read blogs by searching. For example Richard Bernstein the author of The book Thomas Jefferson recently commented on the blog post I did for his book. Undoubtedly he found the post by searching on his name. I was very excited to get his feedback and in a sense make an acquaintance with him.

I regularly read blogs by using the Google blog reader but I suspect no one else regularly reads my blog. This bothered me for a while but I then I reminded myself that I blog because I like to. Comments welcome.

Lincoln: The Presidential Archives.

Blogging leads to serendipity. I had to look up the word serendipity to make sure I had the usage right. According to my Merriam-Webster Dictionary serendipity is the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for. In my case the agreeable thing not sought for was a free book.

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Carroll an Assistant Manager of Online Marketing at DK Publishing offering me a review copy of a new book, Lincoln: The Presidential Archives. The book arrived the first of this week and I have been reading it ever since. I am enjoying it. If you have ever read any of the DK Eyewitness Travel Guides you will remember the wonderful pictures, illustrations and maps that make them such sumptuous books. Lincoln: The Presidential Archives does for history what the DK travel guides do for travel. The book contains many wonderful pictures but even better are the eight pockets containing reproduced, removable documents. Being able to hold and read even a reproduction of the Emancipation Proclamation or a letter from Mary Todd Lincoln immeasurably adds to the impact of this book.

The author, Chuck Wills, has written a very readable summary of Lincoln’s life. This is the third book I’ve read about Lincoln this year and it has substantially augmented what I knew and/or remembered about Lincoln and his life. I especially like the background chapters about Lincoln’s pre-presidential years.

I recommend Lincoln: The Presidential Archives. Even for someone who is not as enthralled by Presidential history as I am it is a fascinating book. I think its appeal for me is how real it makes Lincoln and his life.

As I said at the beginning of this post I received my copy of  Lincoln: The Presidential Archives from the DK Publishing. In her email Carroll also offered to give me a second copy of the book  to use for a give away contest on my blog. So, to the first person who comments on this blog entry and emails their address to me I will send you a free copy of Lincoln: The Presidential Archives. How’s that for serendipity!

Caveat: I guess it wouldn’t be fair for any member of my family to win the book. If they want a copy they will have to put it on their Christmas list. 

Blogging Side Benefits

Last week I wrote a post titled Inspiration linking to Tom Mangan’s blog about 4WheelBob being the first person in a wheel chair to climb White Mountain. You can imagine how much I felt like an insider when I saw the story on the front page of the San Jose Mercury News  last Friday. It was exciting!

Personally I always found that blogging really helped my career as well as expanding my personal network. It helped me clarify my goals and my strategy and tactics and it made me visible to other people.  While I was at Sun I know I did a better, more visible job because I blogged. I believe blogging helped me get the job at Intuit. When I left Intuit I got a job offer as a result of blogging. 

It seems to me that Tom Mangan’s story about 4WheelBob climbing White Mountain is another example about blogging helping a career. Tom seems to be blogging about what he likes to do and it seems to me that blogging must help his career. I emailed him to ask him about this and he replied "to answer your question re blogging and the career: it helps, but not as much as you  might think." He pointed out that blogging might help but he still need a day job unrelated to hiking. Blogging takes a lot of time so one might question whether the return is worth the time it takes.

Bottom line is I guess most of us blog because we enjoy it. Any career benefits are side benefits, not the reason to blog. Now that I am retired from corporate life I like to think that blogging still helps my career. I am the CEO of Marion Inc. My goal is to live, to love, to learn and to be interesting. Blogging is part of my strategy to enhance the learn and be interesting part. Maybe that is at the heart of why I enjoy blogging.

Another blog I always Read

Millie Garfield’s blog My Mom’s Blog by Thoroughly Modern Millie is on my short list of Blog’s I read regularly. She had a great posting back in January that I am just getting around to linking to. It was titled My Trip from 65 to 81 .  I’ve got about 10 years to go before I hit 65. I do think a lot of what she says about her journey provides lessons for all of us. I like her attitude and the fact that she started blogging when she was 77. I hope I never stop learning and doing new things.