Hello everyone; my name is Mark Valentine, and I'm a blogger.
I've often thought about doing a blog before, as have many other people. There are several reasons that have contributed to me starting a blog now, and several others that led me to do this particular blog:
First, I enjoy writing and I don't do it nearly enough. This will force me to put up something daily; at best it will be something creative and original and insightful, but at the worst I will find some other good blog post for you to read and give you a good recommendation for it.
Second, I had a conversation with a friend yesterday. She starts graduate school next week and her laptop battery is very unreliable, so she needs to keep it plugged in during classes to take notes. She was concerned that she'd have to get there super-early for every class to make sure that she got a seat next to an outlet, and I joked that she should just take an extension cord and some power strips and start charging everyone else 10 cents to plug in; she didn't take me seriously on the monetization aspect, but she hadn't considered using an extension cord before and was really grateful for the idea. I thought to myself, "You know, I do have good ideas from time to time... Why not write them down?"
Third, I'm not really the entrepreneurial, go-get-'em type, so if any of these are good business ideas, I'm not going to be the one to pursue them; therefore, I have no reason to hold on to them and keep them to myself. (I agree very much with a lot of Seth Godin's philosophies regarding the free sharing of information, and I'll probably be sending you to his blog quite often. Bookmark it now to save time.) I'd much rather someone else use them, expand on them, or be inspired by them than just knowing that "I had that idea first" or "I can't believe they're just now figuring that out." I'm from the Internet and I'm here to help!
Lastly, for the purely selfish reasons of bragging rights, portfolio building, and ease of focus.
- Bragging rights: In case I think of something amazing and then a company does it later, I can point back here and say, "Aha!" (Like that one time I e-mailed a friend and said Apple should develop facial recognition software for their products over a year and a half before they announced it for iPhoto '09.)
- Portfolio building: In case anyone ever wants to Google me or find out what I have to add to their lives or business, they can read this and go, "Ah, he's one sharp cookie! We should like and trust him." It never hurts to start building a good reputation, even if you don't need one yet!
- Ease of focus: Part of the demotivation to starting a blog in the past has always been that I didn't think I could provide consistent, intelligent, and insightful updates on any one subject. The thing that came closest to tempting me was a game blog, talking about aspects of game design and maybe game reviews, but I knew that I wouldn't have the number of thoughts and insights necessary to make that work (although I do follow a number of fantastic game design blogs that I love). With a blog that can have a completely different topic every day, what could possibly go wrong?
So that sets the stage for this blog. I'll try to keep things to-the-point and enjoyable, because I know your time is valuable.
My good idea for the day: Read Seth Godin's post on Free Work vs. Internships. Please read through the linked ebook if you have time, because I think the concept is fascinating, revolutionary, and exactly what a lot of people (especially recent college graduates like myself) could use to change their lives and the way they think about doing business. This "get off your butt and do something useful" attitude was the final impetus and inspiration for starting this blog, and I hope it changes the way you think about things as well.
I've often thought about doing a blog before, as have many other people. There are several reasons that have contributed to me starting a blog now, and several others that led me to do this particular blog:
First, I enjoy writing and I don't do it nearly enough. This will force me to put up something daily; at best it will be something creative and original and insightful, but at the worst I will find some other good blog post for you to read and give you a good recommendation for it.
Second, I had a conversation with a friend yesterday. She starts graduate school next week and her laptop battery is very unreliable, so she needs to keep it plugged in during classes to take notes. She was concerned that she'd have to get there super-early for every class to make sure that she got a seat next to an outlet, and I joked that she should just take an extension cord and some power strips and start charging everyone else 10 cents to plug in; she didn't take me seriously on the monetization aspect, but she hadn't considered using an extension cord before and was really grateful for the idea. I thought to myself, "You know, I do have good ideas from time to time... Why not write them down?"
Third, I'm not really the entrepreneurial, go-get-'em type, so if any of these are good business ideas, I'm not going to be the one to pursue them; therefore, I have no reason to hold on to them and keep them to myself. (I agree very much with a lot of Seth Godin's philosophies regarding the free sharing of information, and I'll probably be sending you to his blog quite often. Bookmark it now to save time.) I'd much rather someone else use them, expand on them, or be inspired by them than just knowing that "I had that idea first" or "I can't believe they're just now figuring that out." I'm from the Internet and I'm here to help!
Lastly, for the purely selfish reasons of bragging rights, portfolio building, and ease of focus.
- Bragging rights: In case I think of something amazing and then a company does it later, I can point back here and say, "Aha!" (Like that one time I e-mailed a friend and said Apple should develop facial recognition software for their products over a year and a half before they announced it for iPhoto '09.)
- Portfolio building: In case anyone ever wants to Google me or find out what I have to add to their lives or business, they can read this and go, "Ah, he's one sharp cookie! We should like and trust him." It never hurts to start building a good reputation, even if you don't need one yet!
- Ease of focus: Part of the demotivation to starting a blog in the past has always been that I didn't think I could provide consistent, intelligent, and insightful updates on any one subject. The thing that came closest to tempting me was a game blog, talking about aspects of game design and maybe game reviews, but I knew that I wouldn't have the number of thoughts and insights necessary to make that work (although I do follow a number of fantastic game design blogs that I love). With a blog that can have a completely different topic every day, what could possibly go wrong?
So that sets the stage for this blog. I'll try to keep things to-the-point and enjoyable, because I know your time is valuable.
My good idea for the day: Read Seth Godin's post on Free Work vs. Internships. Please read through the linked ebook if you have time, because I think the concept is fascinating, revolutionary, and exactly what a lot of people (especially recent college graduates like myself) could use to change their lives and the way they think about doing business. This "get off your butt and do something useful" attitude was the final impetus and inspiration for starting this blog, and I hope it changes the way you think about things as well.
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