Loyal readers will notice that I haven’t blogged much over the past year and a half. It’s not because I have nothing to say, or I’ve wanted to neglect personal marketing. It’s because blogging takes a lot of time and I’ve been busy actually doing things.  

Good blog posts don’t just flow from the brain onto the keyboard. They start with a well thought out idea, which turns into an outline or a structure that becomes paragraphs and sentences. Then, the language is edited and tightened until you’ve got something that’s both interesting and fun to read. If you don’t believe blogging takes time, just go take a look at livejournal - around for years before blogs took off - and you’ll see what I mean. At least, if you can understand what they’re saying.

The amount of time it takes to blog well is one of the reasons that most bloggers fall into two categories: professional writers and the unemployed. Professional writers are practiced enough that they don’t take as long to write good prose, and usually have flexible enough careers that they can use the blog as part of their professional activities. In this category, I include not only journalist-bloggers, but also authors pimping a book and academics.

The unemployed also make good bloggers. Even if they take longer to write good posts, it doesn’t matter. They’ve got plenty of time. For those between jobs, it’s a great way to occupy their time and build a professional reputation on the interwebs. Students are underworked and not really learning anything, so they’ve got plenty of time. And finally bored millionaires who recently cashed out from a tech stock now have plenty of time to blog and a firm belief that their opinion now matters.

For those of us who actually do stuff, blogging isn’t so easy. That’s why only a handful of executives blog, and those who do blog infrequently. (Joel Spolsky is an exception here, Jonathan Schwartz’s blog is more of a marketing piece). They’re busy running companies. Same with investment bankers, corporate lawyers, management consultants, and other people whose high-intensity jobs have sucked away not only their time, but also their desire to spend time playing on the internet.

I definitely wish I could blog more. I want to review the last 8 books I’ve read. I have tons of advice for product-based companies trying to launch a services group. I’ve given some serious thought to hard problems in engaging employees. As part of my work, I come up with code snippets that would be great to share. And every time I read something on Employee Evolution or from Penelope Trunk, I want to write a post about it from the perspective of a millennial who actually works in the real world, does workplace research, and has actually coached and conducted job searches.

I’d love to get the time to cross-post from Slashdot, Marginal Revolution, and Arts and Letters Daily again. And maybe one day I’ll write “16 Reasons Penelope Trunk is Full Of It and 8 Reasons Why She’s Probably Crazy,” followed shortly by “The 6 Things Penelope Trunk Actually Gets Right.” But it’s 11:30PM, I’m exhausted after working a full day, I’m going to be in five cities this week, and people are depending on me to be sharp tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, blogging is a luxury that I sacrifice to actually get things done.

Categories: Ephemera