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A dissenting opinion: Writing a blog helps you organize your thoughts, improves your writing skills, and teaches you to make good arguments (and recognize bad

A dissenting opinion: Writing a blog helps you organize your thoughts, improves your writing skills, and teaches you to make good arguments (and recognize bad ones). None of that requires having an audience. At least an audience larger than your friends and coworkers. If you like to write, don't stop writing because it's not "where the buzz is at". There's more to life than following trends.

acgourley 18y ago
Well said. In addition to that, I use my blog to host content I hope people will find via google, like how-tos or coding gotchas. I'm not going to post a coding trick to my facebook account, even if it has more active readers.
- randrews 18y ago
  Exactly. Some content, like status updates, is perfect for Twitter or Facebook, but this article seems to assume that that's all anyone uses blogs for. Please god say it ain't so. I would like to think that people who keep blogs (at least the subset thereof that also read Wired) tend to write more interesting things in them, and I can't imagine that being replaced by 140 characters (this notwithstanding: http://twitter.com/_why/statuses/881768089 http://twitter.com/_why/statuses/881768089 )
  - alex_c 18y ago
    If this is actually a ploy to get pointless blogs out of Google's index and hidden behind Facebook's garden wall, then I'm all for it!
DanielBMarkham 18y ago
You can also write in your blog for your great-great-great-grandkids -- family that hasn't been born yet. Or you can write as a way of organizing book material. Or you can write as a way to keep and share memories with just a few people. Blogging is an internal thing first, external second.
- davidw 18y ago
  > write in your blog for your great-great-great-grandkids You think stuff we are producing these days will last? I'm dubious. Paper lasts a decent amount of time, but digital media?
  - DanielBMarkham 18y ago
    I do. In fact, I think blogging is the next best thing to a resurrection machine. I'll guess there are ten places on the net that cache this stuff (including this comment) Even now, you'll see people post an article here from five or six years ago. It might have 100 comments on it. Five or Six commenters might already be dead -- including the article's author. Now multiply that by 50. Most of the net will end up being written by dead people. I blogged about this a while back -- http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2008/09/the_dead_speak.php http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2008/09/the_dead_spea...
    - davi 18y ago
      Yes, I've had this thought: that this is the beginning of the "high density" version of recorded history. That, barring a cataclysmic implosion of civilization, the internet archives being populated now will likely be available for perusal 10,000 years from now. As a corollary thought, an interesting exercise might be to only generate content -- movies, essays, fiction, non-fiction, whatever -- that you think people 10,000 years from now will find interesting. How does this constrain what projects to undertake?
      - DanielBMarkham 18y ago
        Or as a variation on the Turing Test, create a program that reviews all of your published material, then continues to comment and participate in discussions long after you are gone based on the material you consumed and the comments you made while you were alive -- in effect, transforming you into some sort of virtual living dead. Somehow I feel compelled to add an evil laugh at this point.
      - 18y ago
unalone 18y ago
That's what I thought originally. Now I use Indexhibit to manage my site and when I've got a good idea, I write it as an essay, publish it when it's revised. I also give a link to my HN threads page, since I'd think that most of my talking about intellectual matters happens here, and since here you can follow the discussions I'm in and really get some good debates. I think that the idea of a personal "blog" is dead. Other mediums have really taken precedence. Very few blogs really stand out to me, nowadays; my favorite ones tend to be more unique implementations, such as BigContrarian and Kottke. Wordpress blogs look old and dated in a lot of ways: they try too much to bridge the gap between the formal and the personal, and I think they lose out because of it.
kalid 18y ago
Completely agree. My writing and thought process has improved a ton since I've been blogging. Even better, you get a chance to interact with people and discuss a deep thought more than a twitter message.

acgourley 18y ago

Well said. In addition to that, I use my blog to host content I hope people will find via google, like how-tos or coding gotchas. I'm not going to post a coding trick to my facebook account, even if it has more active readers.

randrews 18y ago
Exactly. Some content, like status updates, is perfect for Twitter or Facebook, but this article seems to assume that that's all anyone uses blogs for. Please god say it ain't so. I would like to think that people who keep blogs (at least the subset thereof that also read Wired) tend to write more interesting things in them, and I can't imagine that being replaced by 140 characters (this notwithstanding: http://twitter.com/_why/statuses/881768089 http://twitter.com/_why/statuses/881768089 )
- alex_c 18y ago
  If this is actually a ploy to get pointless blogs out of Google's index and hidden behind Facebook's garden wall, then I'm all for it!

DanielBMarkham 18y ago

You can also write in your blog for your great-great-great-grandkids -- family that hasn't been born yet. Or you can write as a way of organizing book material. Or you can write as a way to keep and share memories with just a few people. Blogging is an internal thing first, external second.

davidw 18y ago
> write in your blog for your great-great-great-grandkids You think stuff we are producing these days will last? I'm dubious. Paper lasts a decent amount of time, but digital media?
- DanielBMarkham 18y ago
  I do. In fact, I think blogging is the next best thing to a resurrection machine. I'll guess there are ten places on the net that cache this stuff (including this comment) Even now, you'll see people post an article here from five or six years ago. It might have 100 comments on it. Five or Six commenters might already be dead -- including the article's author. Now multiply that by 50. Most of the net will end up being written by dead people. I blogged about this a while back -- http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2008/09/the_dead_speak.php http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2008/09/the_dead_spea...
  - davi 18y ago
    Yes, I've had this thought: that this is the beginning of the "high density" version of recorded history. That, barring a cataclysmic implosion of civilization, the internet archives being populated now will likely be available for perusal 10,000 years from now. As a corollary thought, an interesting exercise might be to only generate content -- movies, essays, fiction, non-fiction, whatever -- that you think people 10,000 years from now will find interesting. How does this constrain what projects to undertake?
    - DanielBMarkham 18y ago
      Or as a variation on the Turing Test, create a program that reviews all of your published material, then continues to comment and participate in discussions long after you are gone based on the material you consumed and the comments you made while you were alive -- in effect, transforming you into some sort of virtual living dead. Somehow I feel compelled to add an evil laugh at this point.
    - 18y ago

unalone 18y ago

That's what I thought originally. Now I use Indexhibit to manage my site and when I've got a good idea, I write it as an essay, publish it when it's revised. I also give a link to my HN threads page, since I'd think that most of my talking about intellectual matters happens here, and since here you can follow the discussions I'm in and really get some good debates. I think that the idea of a personal "blog" is dead. Other mediums have really taken precedence. Very few blogs really stand out to me, nowadays; my favorite ones tend to be more unique implementations, such as BigContrarian and Kottke. Wordpress blogs look old and dated in a lot of ways: they try too much to bridge the gap between the formal and the personal, and I think they lose out because of it.

kalid 18y ago

Completely agree. My writing and thought process has improved a ton since I've been blogging. Even better, you get a chance to interact with people and discuss a deep thought more than a twitter message.