Disappearing in a flash

Original post:  Feb. 20, 2012

No matter how exquisitely we construct any single post, it is bound to be consumed in a brief moment. The work of hours or days may sometimes last only a few minutes. I think about that when I read some of the bloggers that I follow. They relentlessly add new information. Yet as quickly as they can post it, I voraciously consume it. The tortured output that might have required a year of labors is old news in a few minutes.

At the end of every movie, the credits roll by. I find that very few people will stay through the credits. They have little to no interest in the endless scroll of names. Yet if you turned that around, there is undoubtedly a long trail of tears that led each of those individuals to sacrifice in the hopes of enjoying some brief moment of fame. Even if it is only a flash of a second in nearly unreadable type rushing past at a hundred miles of hour, it is still an achievement that most will never enjoy. It represents that singular ability to point to a real achievement. Even if it is nearly invisible to the masses, it is a way to be a part of something much larger than an individual effort. Every single movie is the collective work of hundreds of people. For some, it may be the only movie they ever work on. It will be the only time they can ever truly refer to something more tangible than the blink of an eye.

While the overwhelming majority of co-workers will never read a single word of this collection, I will still write. Maybe it is simply ignoring the larger fates. Be that as it may, it is mine. It represents a small piece of the overall effort I bring to my projects daily. All too soon, it will also be but a distant memory.

Why I blog

This blog will mirror the blog that I keep in our Jive PulseConnect area at work. I'll try to limit it to my favorite posts. This post was originally created on October 17, 2011.

My wife recently asked me why I blog. It's not as if I spend hours every day doing it to the detriment of the family. It usually takes just a few minutes to jot something down. The challenge (for me) is to do it at least once per work day.

I guess there are two key reasons from my perspective.

First, I remember reading a sobering statistic about blogs in general. Over 60% are abandoned in the first month and up to 95% are abandoned after 120 days. Nearly all of the people who read blogs never post or comment. This little blog is my own way to help populate PulseConnect with tiny bits of interesting things that may help keep people curious or interested. I find that committing myself to putting a thought down on electronic paper helps my own focus and makes me think. It's almost like mental exercise for me.

Second, I am also a firm believer in the "network effect." This is a phenomenon that establishes that the value of individual items increase as it becomes more pervasive. Think of a telephone. It's not valuable unless you can use it to call someone else. As you are able to call more and more people, it grows in value relative to the growth of the overall users and connections.

Perhaps it is simply hubris on my part, but I believe I have a lot of ideas. In and of themselves, ideas are not valuable. In my mind, ideas are like little seeds. If they remain in their safe, comfortable capsule, they will never amount to anything. They have to be digested and dispersed widely. If I am lucky, my little idea might grow into something more than just another thought. Maybe someone else will shepherd my idea and take it on. If it is fed and watered by others in the community, perhaps it can spark some kind of cross-pollination. As more and more of these ideas grow up and out, they generate a virtuous cycle of even newer ideas.

PulseConnect has the potential to become a microcosm of innovative activity within our company. It can only achieve that destiny if it is used and valued by the larger community.

And so I blog....