Why blog

Matt asks an interesting question: “why weblog?”

True, my primary reason for keeping this site around is that it serves as a universally-accessible bookmarks page. When I find something interesting, I post about it. There are, of course, other reasons.

I read or heard, somewhere, something, that said that no thought can truly be considered complete until it has left the mind, converted to another medium, such as text or speech or art. This sounds odd at first, but consider how truly difficult it is to express yourself verbally. You can think of amazing things, but the act of converting these thoughts to static text or spoken words takes a significant effort. These simple few lines, for me, contained numerous backspaces and word-replacements that narrowed my original thoughts into precise verbiage.

I think perhaps some of the effort is due to the sycophantic nature of our own minds, encouraging mental laziness. “Yessir, boss! That’s a great idea, boss!” In our own minds, we don’t have to error-correct, because we already know what we mean, when we’re thinking to ourselves.

Most people are content to remain almost without thought for the entirety of their lives, and what thoughts they do express are of a very simplistic nature, usually issued verbally, and then forgotten.

In answer to the question “why blog,” my answer is “so that I can complete my thoughts.”