I’m changing the focus of my blog
When I started this blog in December 2016, I focused on writing about topics that would be useful and relatable to my reader. I stayed away from very nerdy/scientific topics that I loved to talk about because I wanted my content to remain grounded and fun in the eyes of the average reader. Basically, I put my own interests on hold and focused exclusively on satisfying the reader.
I’ll be completely honest now. As time has passed, I’ve become increasingly selfish about the content I write. Obviously I still care about the reader and about making this useful to him/her, but I’ve reached a stage in which I want to focus more on what I want to write rather than worry so much about what (I think that) the reader wants to see. This is, after all, my website.
Hence, I have the following announcement to make:
I am shifting the focus and direction of this blog.
New direction, Same Guy
In the coming weeks/months, I will experiment with discussing topics that solely interest me and will, therefore, essentially disregard what I think the reader wants to see. The first topic I will write about in this new phase will be one of my favorite scholarly topics: behavioral economics.
Specifically, I will talk about why it’s useful, incredibly impactful, and has the potential to be one of the most useful government policy instruments in our (near) future.
This is the type of content that I would not have written about in the past out of fear of alienating too many readers that probably don’t care about behavioral economics, the social sciences in general, or anything that reminds them of those dreadful high school or university days. As I stated earlier though, I’ve reached the point where I want to do more things that I enjoy and, consequently, write about topics that I love rather than always think about what other people want.
Yes, I’m becoming more selfish, but it’s time that I think about my own pleasure and happiness for once.
Honestly, based on my limited traffic numbers since I started this blog, it’s not like I’m upsetting millions of readers anyway. My blog hasn’t exactly caused a seismic shift on the Internet or gone viral, so there’s little risk in this experiment of mine.
That said, even though I’m changing directions, I’m staying true to who I am. That means that it will still be the same ol’ me that has run this website since December 2016. I’ll still have the same writing style, write about subjects in the same quirky (but hopefully endearing) way, and keep using the same awkward and self-deprecating jokes as always.
New direction, same guy.
Resources
As stated earlier, behavioral economics will be the first topic that I will write about. To do this, I will primarily draw material from the following books:
- Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by recent winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics Richard Thaler
- Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Cass R. Sunstein and Richard H. Thaler
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
For those of you that have followed me since day 1 of this blog’s existence, I thank you for your incredible loyalty to my crazy ramblings. I hope you decide to stick with me as I change direction and journey between two worlds.
I’m the author of the book “Community Heroes: What a year as an AmeriCorps VISTA member taught me about community development”
