Some blogs are comprised of audio, photos, or videos, but most of them are still brewed the old-fashioned way, by stringing together a bunch of (hopefully) related words and publishing them to the Internet for everyone to read and discuss.
Rinse. Repeat. Rinse again. Seriously, go wash up. People are beginning to talk.
My first thought as I began to think about which direction to steer my blog was, “What do I want to read?” I reviewed some of my favorite writers and major influences and found a few common threads:
- They’re smart – John Gruber is just as likely to quote Cormac McCarthy (as he did during his talk at Webstock 2011), recite stats from his beloved Yankees (despite living in Philly), or wax rhapsodic about which actor portrayed the best James Bond (Connery, hands down) as he is to share his candid thoughts about the latest tech news.
- They’re funny – My favorite comedy is dry as an aged John Cleese (is there any other kind?) It’s Adam saying “I hate you guys” under his breath during an episode of You Look Nice Today. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels? Pure gold.
- They’re experts – Dan Benjamin has had a set of cans on him since he was a toddler. Organizations from Rutgers U. to Google and others pay Merlin Mann lots of money to tell them what they’re doing wrong and how they can do it better. He was also at Webstock ’11 with Gruber, whose sites get “fireballed” by readers who follow his expert commentary and Claim Chowder.
These folks are the cream of the crop. It’s ridiculous to set my goals so high, but that’s what I’ve done. I’m not here to compete with them and surely don’t claim to join them. I do understand the craftsmanship that goes into what they do and I’m a huge fan of their work.
¡Mios Dio, man! This could get embarrassing!
By the way, most of my reading happens in Instapaper, which Marco Arment (@marcoarment) updated to 4.0 this week. You really should go and buy it now.