Writing Is Hard

…for a number of reasons.

One reason, which is often addressed, is the challenge of effectively communicating your ideas. This is partly technical, but has more to do with how effectively you communicate in any manner. The benefits of learning to write effectively, whether it be blogging or public speaking or whatever, will transform other parts of your life as well. So they tell me.

Equally hard is knowing what exactly to write about. I don’t want to waste my time, or anyone else’s, writing a meandering, stream-of-conciousness blog that has no point. I want to write with purpose.

But for me, these are not the hard problem. The hard problem is that I truly don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. I live my life on the boundary of that which I don’t really understand. Constantly.

And once I’ve truly understood something, it feels silly to write it down, because the only reason that I understand it is that I’ve scoured the internet for good articles by people much smarter than I am. I’m standing on the shoulders of giants; I have nothing new to share with the world.

This is the thing that I have to let go of, if I am going to continue to blog: I have nothing new to offer. This is just one man’s perspective on the things that interest me. Nothing more.