I really like blogging. Mostly because I really like writing. Two of my favorite classes in college were English and Modern Literature, yet somehow I ended up being a Computer Science major. I still remember writing a paper about the literacy of the Simpsons. I couldn't tell you a whole lot about most of the programs I wrote.
What I really love about blogging though are the things that I learn along the way. The title of this post reflects that feeling. It was actually a title I wrote because I got so sick of all of the "What Obama's Innauguration Speech Taught Me about Puppies" posts. In fact, this was the second title I chose for the post. At first it was "Why I Didn't Write Your Stupid Obama Post." Then I realized that you can't really write an Obama post about how you don't like the way people use Obama posts to drive traffic. I also think I'm a pretty nice person and I don't want to turn into someone who hides behind the thin veil of the internet.
In addition to the titles, I wrote up two complete posts to go with them before I wrote this one. The first one was just a rant. After the Obama post, I wrote one about how to write headlines. I can't stand headlines that fit into the template defined by the title above and I wanted to try to give some advice. I even did a bunch of research and had links to Copyblogger and ProBlogger. But then I realized that I don't really want to write about blogging. There are a lot of people that do that much better than I will ever be able to.
This is post number three, under the exact same title. The title could have been "What Blogging Taught Me About Me," or something along those lines. But that title sucks and I like to try to be witty (I usually fail).
More importantly, this post is really about the whole process of blogging. Everything I write about teaches me something along the way, whether it's through my own reflection or the conversations I help create.
My friend wrote a really good e-book about why students should be blogging. Career wise, I agree with everything he has to say. In addition, I think that it should be part of every liberal arts education (at UW-Madison, Comp. Sci. is in the College of Letters & Science. Maybe that's why I made it through). Obviously, because it "develops the student’s ratiocination and intellectual capabilities."
I've been telling a lot of people that they should start blogging recently, generally citing career prospects. Your experiences as a blogger are worth just as much though, albeit in a slightly less tangible way. So go start blogging and see what you find out about yourself.
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