I’m at RAADfest (that’s Revolution Against Aging and Death Festival) again this year, and it’s been a profoundly inspirational experience for me, like it was last year.
I have a lot of ideas coursing through my mind, and one of them is that I should be more public about my thoughts and ideas. And a personal blog seems to be the best option for that.
This isn’t an obvious conclusion for me, because I tend to appreciate anonymity in my life, and though I’m always willing to tell people what I think if they ask, I’m not the type to broadcast my ideas. And I generally don’t enjoy being the center of attention.
Despite my natural tendencies, I think it’s time to open up publicly, for anyone to be able to read about what I’m thinking.
Gifts not given
I’ll compare the act of having ideas or inspiration and not making them accessible to feeling appreciation and not sharing it.
It’s like buying a thoughful, personalized gift for someone, getting it wrapped beautifully, and as you approach the person it was meant for, with it under your arm, you just keep walking and throw it away at the other end of the room. What a waste.
I believe that’s what it’s like to feel appreciation or gratitude for someone, even a stranger, and not tell them. Sure, maybe the private appreciation felt good to you, but it could have been so much more powerful if it was shared.
That’s how I think about ideas. I’m able to consider ideas, weigh them, and make decisions in my life, and that’s meaningful to me. But it’d be more powerful if I shared them with my spouse. And my best friends. And, well, everyone. Why not?
Without publishing ideas in a transparent way, sharing with one more person means extra effort. And that doesn’t work well for my personality. I don’t enjoy doing the same thing repetitively, and I particularly don’t like repeating myself. I often don’t tell many of the people closest to me about the ideas I have on a regular basis, or at least not in detail.
So, I view a public blog as a way to make it easier to share my ideas with anyone that cares to know about them. Whether they’d want to read them or not, they could.
It’d also help me. It’d be like a journal. A catalog of how I’ve approached different life circumstances that were important to me.
Encouraging boldness
But, maybe most importantly, it could help other people feel inspired. I’m not a particularly good writer, I’m not famous, and I’m not super insightful, but I do hold a lot of unconventional views.
And I know that it can feel lonely to hold fringe views. You could be utterly convinced of something, but not know a single person in your physical world that holds them too. In that case, finding someone that shares then online can be incredibly gratifying. It can give you encouragement to be bold and maintain your position with confidence.
I’ve regularly felt this inspiration from Tim Urban, Josh Kaufman, Elon Musk, Ray Kurzweil, and others. I wouldn’t be who I am today without them.
If I can make even one person feel like that from reading my thoughts, any efforts would be well worth it.
That’s enough reasons. I’ve decided to start blogging about my personal deliberations.
