Reflections on being a serial deadbeat blogfather
Number of baby blogs I conceived, dressed up, and abandoned on the cold doorstep of the Web: THREE.
Why. Generic resistance? That was a factor, but the greater suspects were focus and lack of supporting habits. Not lack of focus, but too much of it invested in deep diving into whatever holds my attention this week, month, or longer. That’s why I need to establish habits to support other goals, including short form writing with some regularity. I have habits to ensure I get adequate sleep, nutrition, and exercise; habits for learning; habits to remember appointments; and habits for the other behaviors of a functional person. What I don’t yet have, but shall, are effective habits around drafting, revising, and posting to Substack.
I doubt I’m alone in this. The market for apps addressing the causes, associated frustrations, and proposed mitigations for undesired or desired-but-absent habits was $9.93 billion USD in 2023. The global habit management apps market is growing at 13. 21% annually, attesting to our hunger to achieve more deliberate control over how we spend our attention and time, and what outcomes we generate as a result.
Is there more to my lack of traction with online communicating that than the challenge of habit management? I think so.
Motivation comes to mind. In the past, I’ve noticed no significant difference in felt reward from writing for myself and writing for a public. As an introvert deeply motivated to explore ideas and concepts, I usually feel satiated after feeding on good books, articles, videos, podcasts, and conversations with one or a few friends. I take notes and continue working with ideas. Nothing feels lacking. But, of course, something is lacking.
What is the point of this relatively self-contained guy writing to and dialoguing with an audience beyond himself?
Writing here, and not only in my private notes, can serve values I tell myself I hold:
connection: discovering patterns of meaning that move toward greater internal and collective validity and coherence
community: cultivating mutually meaningful relationships with others
contribution: sharing my efforts at sense-making and meaning-making with others who are exploring the nature and implications of our existence
competence: prompting me to communicate more clearly and completely, which is key to thinking more effectively
The first two values depend in some part on how well the publishing platform accommodates connecting and interacting respectfully and productively. Substack appears to be an excellent environment for engaging with others and their works.
Serving the second two values may benefit from a platform’s design but depends more on my commitment to writing as a deliberate practice.
Read
Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are (2018), by Robert Plomin. There’s a little story behind this one. While looking at houses for sale in May, during a fit of irrationality with respect to the housing market and mortgage rates, I visited a lovely home in Charlottesville, Virginia. In the home’s small office, I saw about 15 paperback copies of this book on a shelf.
I thought the home must belong to the author, one of his close relatives, his editor, or his publicist. I realized I had heard about the book when it first published and had wanted to read it. I took a photo of the shelf of copies to remind me.
The science of genetics is complicated. I embarked on the reading with low expectations. There are many things to know if we want to have basic genetic literacy. Plomin walks the reader through the forest of concepts and terms like a jungle guide who knows every tree, boulder, stream, and animal path. He exposes and dispels many misunderstandings and false claims.
It’s the best popular science book I’ve read on the topic, and I will read it again, more slowly and taking notes, before I corner anyone at a party. (Did I say I’m an introvert? Right. No parties.)
Some of my takeaways:Nurture vs. Nature is a false dichotomy. Many factors commonly assumed to be purely environmental are largely shaped by genetics. Shared environments, like family and schools, account for less than 5% of differences in educational achievement and mental health, once genetically shaped environmental factors are controlled. The upshot is that genes have the greater part than culture, education, or family in influencing each person’s predispositions and behaviors.
Most traits are polygenic, meaning thousands of genes influence them, and also leaving little opportunity for targeted engineering, such as designer babies.
There aren’t actually any psychological disorders. What we think of as disorders are extremes on spectrums of normal variation, not distinct categories. Everyone is somewhere on each psychological spectrum. It’s not binary, yes or no.
At a Journal Workshop: Writing to Access the Power of the Unconscious and Evoke Creative Ability (1992), by Ira Progoff. (See the Wrote section below)
Watched
Dark Matter (Apple TV). I read (and loved) the book, by Blake Crouch, when it first published. I don’t watch series often, but I was curious to see how well the writers (including Crouch), director, and other project principals adapted the complex multiverses thriller to screen. Bravo! And they followed the novel closely. Aside from one sizable logic hole (see if you can identify it) that glared in most episodes, it was superb. Compelling story and performances.
Wrote
Six Intensive Journal entries. I’m learning the structured journaling method developed by the late psychologist, Ira Progoff. The Intensive Journal’s structure and processes are optimized to stimulate creative insights and productivity. In preparation for a 6-day workshop, I’ve been reading the workshop book. I also attended a 3-hour online introductory session led by the kind, insightful author, poet, and artist, Carolyn Kelley Williams (goes by Kelley).