In reading today's post titled "The Operations Behind the Blog, Forum and Book", I came to realize that a lot of work goes into the creation, content, and maintenance of all three items.
The blog, IMHO, a hit record from the very beginning, does take a lot of creation to have a newsy, usable, and beneficial content about it.
Personally, I couldn't do it. The forum, takes a lot of software management and knowledge, monitoring, and upkeep of all kinds, such as reading the posts, and throwing in the proverbial two cents worth, as the forum writers like being noticed. All this takes a lot of time. Writing a book, I think would be exciting, or it would be for me to attempt such. Again, not sure I could do the lengthy checklist of getting a book ready to publish, let alone the ability to organize and write one. I could vomit up some thoughts, get them on paper, but not sure it would ever go beyond my own hard drive.
I could sense a tad of frustration in the aforementioned post, and rightly so, especially when a "complaint" (or more?) was raised. We do not need a complaint department, as we (1) do not honor any complaints here, and (2) none of us have anything to complain about. If we do, we will just jaw-jack among ourselves, which there has been no incidences of on blog/forum/book/weather/politics/cost of eggs in china.
What we will do is appreciate the creation of the forum, love the blog, and look forward to the book release date.
Can I get an amen?
Blog and Forums et al
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jacob
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The forums are almost self-maintained. They were surprisingly easy to set up. I don't feel any pressure at all to participate here.
I have still no idea where the time I spent on writing the book came from. It took about two years, and I know that it at one point reached almost 150,000 words before I cut out chapters to grind it down to 100,000 or so. I can finger-type at about 70WPM, but my usual typing speed for blog writing is probably more like 40 WPM when I need to go back and change a word or two, etc.
This means that it has taken at least 2500 hours to write the book and probably more like 4000. Thinking back, I can't for the life of me figure out how that happened. I guess it's just the sum total of a few hours here and there over a long time.
I'm having a hard time getting started on book#2 though. I think book#1 is still too close---I still have too much going on WRT to that one.
I don't know how much time Zev has spent on editing, but it took me about 50 hours just to transfer his corrections back into the manuscript!
The blog is definitely the hardest one to write. This is mainly because of the time-pressure to post regularly and the need to remain interesting. The latter requires lots of reading to fuel the thinking. It's quite apparent to me, having a record of my thoughts, how stable my thinking is on various subjects.
The OPP plugin was a huge relief. Still, however, it takes a long time to develop a theory to maturity. One should probably figure on 1-2 years of contemplation. I think the ERE theory has been exhausted by the book project---it's canonical.
I'm still contemplating "a theory of investment" since I like to solidify my understanding here as well instead of just relying on incohesive intuitive notions.
I am likely quite handicapped by not being willing to repeat myself knowingly.
I have still no idea where the time I spent on writing the book came from. It took about two years, and I know that it at one point reached almost 150,000 words before I cut out chapters to grind it down to 100,000 or so. I can finger-type at about 70WPM, but my usual typing speed for blog writing is probably more like 40 WPM when I need to go back and change a word or two, etc.
This means that it has taken at least 2500 hours to write the book and probably more like 4000. Thinking back, I can't for the life of me figure out how that happened. I guess it's just the sum total of a few hours here and there over a long time.
I'm having a hard time getting started on book#2 though. I think book#1 is still too close---I still have too much going on WRT to that one.
I don't know how much time Zev has spent on editing, but it took me about 50 hours just to transfer his corrections back into the manuscript!
The blog is definitely the hardest one to write. This is mainly because of the time-pressure to post regularly and the need to remain interesting. The latter requires lots of reading to fuel the thinking. It's quite apparent to me, having a record of my thoughts, how stable my thinking is on various subjects.
The OPP plugin was a huge relief. Still, however, it takes a long time to develop a theory to maturity. One should probably figure on 1-2 years of contemplation. I think the ERE theory has been exhausted by the book project---it's canonical.
I'm still contemplating "a theory of investment" since I like to solidify my understanding here as well instead of just relying on incohesive intuitive notions.
I am likely quite handicapped by not being willing to repeat myself knowingly.
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jacob
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"Thinking" is actually very hard to quantify. It reminds me of my time doing research. I'd typically start out doing "nothing" for several hours. Then I'd hack around changing a few things here and there in a code or a manuscript. Maybe I'd suddenly get an idea and code it up in about half an hour. Then I'd read papers or try to make a good figure. If I managed to do that much in a day, I'd consider it a success.
So if you're just looking at what materially got done, it was very little. A lot could have changed mentally, though, both consciously but more importantly unconsciously.
I guess "thinking creatively" is comparable to practicing an instrument except there's no instrument and no sound. Still, by practicing you get better, and by getting better, you can produce something brilliant in short order when you finally do play.
Practicing is hard. This is why most people prefer not to.
EDIT: subsequently turned into a blog post
So if you're just looking at what materially got done, it was very little. A lot could have changed mentally, though, both consciously but more importantly unconsciously.
I guess "thinking creatively" is comparable to practicing an instrument except there's no instrument and no sound. Still, by practicing you get better, and by getting better, you can produce something brilliant in short order when you finally do play.
Practicing is hard. This is why most people prefer not to.
EDIT: subsequently turned into a blog post
@HSpencer
Amen. Yours is a voice (text?) of reason and wisdom. I love the forum because people like you share their experience with such depth and passion. Complainers will not thrive in our little community of can-do strivers.
@Jacob
The avoidance of conscious repetition is probably an introversion versus extraversion thing. Most Is relate that they work it out internally, then articulate a fully formed idea. Most Es, and I am one of them in spades, verbalize their nascent thoughts in order to conceptualize the fully formed idea. This often involves circularity and repetition. I am rarely committed fully to the first two-thirds of my utterances on any given topic.
Amen. Yours is a voice (text?) of reason and wisdom. I love the forum because people like you share their experience with such depth and passion. Complainers will not thrive in our little community of can-do strivers.
@Jacob
The avoidance of conscious repetition is probably an introversion versus extraversion thing. Most Is relate that they work it out internally, then articulate a fully formed idea. Most Es, and I am one of them in spades, verbalize their nascent thoughts in order to conceptualize the fully formed idea. This often involves circularity and repetition. I am rarely committed fully to the first two-thirds of my utterances on any given topic.
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RobBennett
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"We do not need a complaint department, as we (1) do not honor any complaints here, and (2) none of us have anything to complain about."
I do not know the background re this comment. So it could be that my comment is irrelevant. But I have had experiences at a number of forums and blogs where something that I think could fairly be characterized as a "no complaining rule" was adopted to very detrimental effect for the entire community. So I'll share my thoughts based on those experiences.
There are different kinds of "complaints." It certainly is so that one type of complaining is rooted in negativity and is just a stone cold drag all the way around. If that's the idea being expressed here, I heartily agree. Some people are trying to push the ball forward, others just cannot bear to see any balls move forward and so they spend their life energies trying to stop balls from going forward. Life is too short for such junk.
But there is another kind of "complaining" that is more properly thought of as constructive criticism. This stuff is pure gold. We all get locked into our particular way of thinking and need outsiders to help us find a better path. The internet provides wonderful opportunities for this because it is global and the barriers to entry are so low. So I see great potential for the internet to facilitate this kind of positive "complaining" (what I am describing is not really complaining but I can testify from personal experience that it is often perceived that way).
Anyway, those are some thoughts coming from a somewhat different perspective.
Rob
I do not know the background re this comment. So it could be that my comment is irrelevant. But I have had experiences at a number of forums and blogs where something that I think could fairly be characterized as a "no complaining rule" was adopted to very detrimental effect for the entire community. So I'll share my thoughts based on those experiences.
There are different kinds of "complaints." It certainly is so that one type of complaining is rooted in negativity and is just a stone cold drag all the way around. If that's the idea being expressed here, I heartily agree. Some people are trying to push the ball forward, others just cannot bear to see any balls move forward and so they spend their life energies trying to stop balls from going forward. Life is too short for such junk.
But there is another kind of "complaining" that is more properly thought of as constructive criticism. This stuff is pure gold. We all get locked into our particular way of thinking and need outsiders to help us find a better path. The internet provides wonderful opportunities for this because it is global and the barriers to entry are so low. So I see great potential for the internet to facilitate this kind of positive "complaining" (what I am describing is not really complaining but I can testify from personal experience that it is often perceived that way).
Anyway, those are some thoughts coming from a somewhat different perspective.
Rob
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RobBennett
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I've now read the blog entry behind this thread (always a good idea!) and am a good bit more clear on what this is about. So I'll add a more relevant comment.
I didn't see anything wrong with the complaint. It sounded sincere. You could argue that it was a bit petty. I have definitely had the experience of seeing people go to a lot of trouble to make a petty complaint while saying nothing about matters of far greater significance -- it's hard to figure sometimes! Still, my guess is that, if this person felt this way, 10 others felt the same. So by writing the complaint the person provided useful feedback.
I thought Jacob's response was fantastic. He explained why he wasn't concerned about the complaint with language that made a compelling argument. I learned something from the response. So in that sense I cannot say that I was too bothered by the complaint that generated it. Jacob is looking at things from a very different level than the person who registered the complaint and I was grateful to hear more about where he was coming from (I am new here).
I wouldn't be concerned about that particular complaint. But I guess my reaction shows that I worry about becoming defensive re complaints. I think we all need to hear feedback from others to continue learning. Jacob certainly seems to place a strong emphasis on learning experiences, which I think is great. I find that aspect of his response very impressive. Repeating old blog entries that were well done makes a whole big bunch more sense that wasting time making them look new.
The part that I felt uneasy about was the idea that community members would not influence where discussions and thinking go. I am a big believer in community interaction. It is the facilitation of community interaction that is the thing that most excites me about this new communications medium.
You can probably tell that this entire topic is a bit of a sensitive point with me because of some personal experiences I have lived through in recent years!
Rob
I didn't see anything wrong with the complaint. It sounded sincere. You could argue that it was a bit petty. I have definitely had the experience of seeing people go to a lot of trouble to make a petty complaint while saying nothing about matters of far greater significance -- it's hard to figure sometimes! Still, my guess is that, if this person felt this way, 10 others felt the same. So by writing the complaint the person provided useful feedback.
I thought Jacob's response was fantastic. He explained why he wasn't concerned about the complaint with language that made a compelling argument. I learned something from the response. So in that sense I cannot say that I was too bothered by the complaint that generated it. Jacob is looking at things from a very different level than the person who registered the complaint and I was grateful to hear more about where he was coming from (I am new here).
I wouldn't be concerned about that particular complaint. But I guess my reaction shows that I worry about becoming defensive re complaints. I think we all need to hear feedback from others to continue learning. Jacob certainly seems to place a strong emphasis on learning experiences, which I think is great. I find that aspect of his response very impressive. Repeating old blog entries that were well done makes a whole big bunch more sense that wasting time making them look new.
The part that I felt uneasy about was the idea that community members would not influence where discussions and thinking go. I am a big believer in community interaction. It is the facilitation of community interaction that is the thing that most excites me about this new communications medium.
You can probably tell that this entire topic is a bit of a sensitive point with me because of some personal experiences I have lived through in recent years!
Rob
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jacob
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The thing that sent me up in arms was actually better explained by one of the comments. It was initially understood as a reaction against entitlement (myself included), but more accurately, the problem was the [socially unacceptable] expectation that a heavy burden should be put upon one person rather than putting a light, almost negligible, burden on many people---even if the sum total of the latter is greater.
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RobBennett
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I went back and read the comments. I agree with this comment by "Tom":
"I’m in it for the ideas. Ideas to challenge the way I think, inspire and motivate. Ideas are time bound not by when they were originally presented but on the reader’s mental, physical and emotional state when they read them. Recycling ideas is great because it increases the chances of an important idea resonating with a receptive mind."
I reject out of hand that there is anything wrong with a recycled post. I think it is a plus. It may be that some have a hard time seeing it that way. So it might not an entirely bad thing that the topic came up and was discussed. I'd like to see the recycled post concept become a trend. I'd much rather have bloggers creating a relatively small number of posts that they recycle than wasting time repeating outdated conventional wisdom over and over again.
It might be that you are paying the price for being ahead of your time, Jacob! It happens!
Rob
"I’m in it for the ideas. Ideas to challenge the way I think, inspire and motivate. Ideas are time bound not by when they were originally presented but on the reader’s mental, physical and emotional state when they read them. Recycling ideas is great because it increases the chances of an important idea resonating with a receptive mind."
I reject out of hand that there is anything wrong with a recycled post. I think it is a plus. It may be that some have a hard time seeing it that way. So it might not an entirely bad thing that the topic came up and was discussed. I'd like to see the recycled post concept become a trend. I'd much rather have bloggers creating a relatively small number of posts that they recycle than wasting time repeating outdated conventional wisdom over and over again.
It might be that you are paying the price for being ahead of your time, Jacob! It happens!
Rob