On blogging
Man this blogging stuff is hard.
I’ve had a blogging system set up and parked in my domain, giving me the stink-eye, for a few years now and while I have managed to jot down a cup full of ideas and ramblings in its time, I’ve found it very hard to maintain. Sometimes the problem is a lack of content - but what do I write about? - sometimes content overflow - should I blog this or folio that? But most often, I find it’s the sheer pace of the content - ack twitter, stop throwing information at me! - and I suppose there’s also the urge to tinker.
Actually, the urge to hack and tinker has probably been my biggest challenge. In my profession I design, build and maintain web systems, and I get as much pleasure from getting into the guts of a site as I do from nailing some kickass typography or colours; as much as I do from painting awesome user experiences; as much as I do from crafting beautiful user interfaces. It’s very difficult to not try and fix something that you see is broken, and being a bit of a perfectionist means I’m always noticing my mistakes.
Or maybe the challenge to keep up with the cyber-joneses (Jetsons?) is what gets me. Guys, full disclosure: I think I’m addicted to the Internet. Seriously, there’s a million information coming at me every second, telling me every angle about how I should only use semicolons after 6pm on Tuesdays, which shade of burnt umber to paint my Bootstrap buttons, why I should use BeltBuckle instead, and why all of these decisions will actually help my SEO to achieve my boss’s Key Metrics in Terraflimps per quokka.
When you combine the two, I have found that it makes a pretty good recipe for writers’ block. I mean all that information just makes me notice areas of improvement I could hack on and tinker with a bit more, and eventually my to-do list becomes longer than an actual blog post.
I’m really interested in the idea of the “design of things”, or how things work. One idea that has been making a stir in my brain has been that of focus and design in products - and I think it could also cure my blogging hiccups. The theory goes that while minimal and simple is awesome, a focused product is likely to be better Some would say that you should focus on the user’s interactive experience, others say the content should drive the design, so focus on the content. Yes, some people still think that you’re worth diddly-bupkis if you aren’t #1 on Ask Jeeves’s home-inbox-thingywhatsit. Probably.
I am partial to the idea that it depends. Even down to where you should concert your efforts, it depends on your product. An eCommerce site could focus on user experience or user behaviour; a crisps company on delivering a brand; a newspaper on the quality of content (this still happens somewhere, right?). It’s not so easy to narrow down a sweet spot among my passions.
The awesome news is that I’m from the Internet, so I dont have to agonise on this all alone - I can blog while I’m figuring out what to blog about - Insert meme.
[edit: Turns out that 2am is when the typos attack?]
