Two other people's thoughts about blogging

Now that I'm blogging, I'm thinking about blogging. Very meta. I'm not sure that I have anything to say about it yet, other than that these two folks have interesting observations ...

Clive Thomson points out that blogging gets you thinking like a writer.

The thing that most writers and pundits don't realize is that, before the Internet came along, the vast majority of Americans never wrote anything -- ever -- after they left high school or college. There was neither any need (their jobs didn't require it) or any vehicle for doing it in their spare time. What the Internet did was give us all a reason to write -- and write tons. Which is where things get cool, because that helped Americans realize that they are, beneath the surface, a hell of a lot more outre and odd than they're normally allowed to be in polite company. Hence all the flame wars, the brobdignagian emotions, the playful grandstanding that characterizes so much of online life.

Meanwhile, Rands in Repose agrees and takes it a step further to argue that everyone should ''write and meet with courage.'' Seconding Clive Thomson, he says

If you're reading this, you've chosen to use the web as a means of gathering new ideas. It is a non-trivial ability to take that drunken thought you had last Thursday and translate it a compelling argument that folks should talk about. Writing takes time and practice and time and practice.

When you create a space in your life for a weblog, you're saying, ''Writing matters.''

... then he goes on to talk about the power of weblogging for community ...

Once you've ably conquered the whole writing thing and your ideas are floating around the weblog-o-sphere, people are going to find you. These people are going to want to talk about what you wrote and, oddly enough, their voice is going to sound familiar. This is because they've found something familiar in your voice.

Weblogs match people together regardless of geography thus making the world a pleasantly smaller place.