The Only Question That Matters: How Useful Can You Be?
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Yesterday, my wife asked me a simple question. We were making porridge for our son, Oiva, when my wife started wondering how cooling actually works (the food was still too hot and the baby was anxious to get something to eat…).
I remembered vaguely that heat has something to do with movement and kinetic energy. So I went online. I did a Google search, and landed on a YouTube video with a lively professor from Berkeley explaining the concepts of heat, gravity, speed and all those things.
The lecture lasted for 78 minutes, and I watched all of it.
I never watch video blogs. I never listed to podcasts. And I don’t really read blogs, I just skim through them.
So what was different here?
If you have the time, you can see it for yourself:
The difference is actually really simple: the guy on the video is a real expert who has useful information to give to me. Information that I can’t get from many places presented in such a clear way.
Earlier this week, Harry from Men With Pens wrote a post on this very topic: Bloggers that fake it!
This time I recommend you read it from start to finish - it will make you think about your blogging. It sure did that to me. I’m still digesting my ideas, and will post them and the effect they will have on my future blogging plans some time next week.
And today, there was a great post from Skellie (Skelliewag.org): Why Great Writing Doesn’t Matter Online
What matters, then?
Usefulness.
New ideas.
Inspiration.
Writing a blog post like this one is easy (This post took me about 20 minutes to finish). But how much better would it be to write something like that lecture from Berkeley? Something that makes a difference!
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March 9th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Hey Jarkko, thanks for the link and we’re glad we could stir up thought. I don’t think you fake it by any means, but it’s good to revisit our stance from time to time - and that often means we better ourselves in some way. Keep up the good work.
March 9th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Thanks for the link, Jarkko, that’s so cool. It’s funny, the folks who don’t really need the message are the ones who *get* it the most.
March 9th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Hey guys! Thanks for the support, but even more importantly, thanks for the post. It really got me thinking, and I think that’s a sign of a great post.
I’ve been trying to walk the walk and only talk about things I know at least at some level, but still, I do think there is always some room for improvement. I’m not going to make any dramatic changes, but still feel that I can improve a bit :)
And then something completely different:
*CONGRATULATIONS*
James, you just wrote the 1000th comment on this blog. And Harry, yours was comment number 1001!
March 9th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Really? *perks* That’s so cool! (Yes, I know, that’s childish as hell but like I say to Harry, the small things get me all excited, ha!)
I’ll be happy to stick around and break your next milestone record for you too, Jarkko ;)
March 9th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
That’s great, James! You know, I’m like that as well - when I get a new subscriber record (nothing huge) or lots of comments, or someone important answers my e-mail I’m so excited I just have to tell someone (usually my wife, although she is starting to think it’s annoying ;)
And speaking of perks, you just reached the top commentator position for this month so far as well! That means I have to congratulate you again!
March 9th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Now *that’s* funny. James posts like a fiend all over creation and makes the 1000 mark, and I just post one time and hit 1001.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
That porridge sure got cold meanwhile :-)
March 10th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
@Pepez: Hehe :) Actually, Mari was feeding Oiva while I looked for information.