Infrequently Noted

Frankly, I'm not entirely certain why I blog. I get asked about it from time to time, and I never have a good answer. I guess it's a value thing. I don't really think I generate much of value via my blog, so I don't have a burning need to post or get better at it. I think this also informs my view of other blogs. I don't use an RSS reader because I tend to generally assume that other people are just as busy, tired, and over-worked (by choice, in my case) as I am. Therefore, I don't want to see a thousand posts in an "inbox", most of which are much like mine. If I want middling crap, I can make it. So I read blogs for the surprise of it.

I read them for the joy of reading something great, or different, or better than my own, so I limit the blogs I read to the blogs I can remember to read. It turns out that this is a pretty good radius. It means that I spend more time reading Ping and Ed Felten and less time reading the blogs of people who only occasionally have something interesting to say.

Taken as a whole, it then occurs to me that perhaps I should stop blogging. If I'm not going to put the kind of time and energy into it as these folks (who are much smarter than I am anyway), then what's the point? It's not like I have significant time to devote to this even if I were interested in doing it better.

What do you think?