Why Blog - The Blogging Journey

Thoughts by Zach Nielsen on benefits of blogging - Take Your Vitamin Z: Why Blog? Here's some quotes & highlights. I've used ellipses where I cut something out for brevity's sake -read the whole thing by following the link above.

1. Practice writing. Writing is a skill just like anything else. The more you do the better you get. The ability to formulate ideas and thoughts in a concise and understandable way is a foundational facet of our civilization that I seek to improve in. The truth is though I don't have that many great things to say (if ever), so I usually point to great things that others have said. But when I do choose write my own thoughts I find that this a valuable process to hone the skill of writing.

2. A place to document my thoughts. Oftentimes I don't know how I feel about an issue until I actually articulate it in a way that someone else could read and understand (as I am doing right now). It forces me to think specifically and concretely about something as opposed to just have this amorphous blob of thinking about an issue rolling around in my brain......

3. A place to document other people's thoughts that I want to share with others. This can be a form of indirect community encouragement as I communicate things that I deem valuable or insightful.

4. A place to document other people's thoughts that I can easily access to in the future..... The longer I blog, the more information I amass, but it doesn't take up massive amounts of shelf space in my office.

5. A context for community. Certainly this kind of "community" is limited and superficial, but it is community none the less.....

6. Entertainment. You have to admit that this is seriously funny. Come on. Entertainment should be low on the priority list, but it's still on the list.

Everything he said agrees with my experience - These are the exact same reasons I started this blogging journey! I do take to heart one other comment by Zach: "any other nut-job can get a blog."