Introvert I am, I’m also analyzing my motives for how I’m blogging, and why I’m blogging at all.
My space. Life gets crowded sometimes. Work and family roles fill up most of it. I guess I’m seeking a space all of my own, a “studio” (even if just a virtual studio) where I can work on being (and figuring out) Me.
Publishing. This is the biggest motivation. As a web developer, I’ve built a ton of stuff I want to share with the world. I started doing this a couple years ago and self-publishing it in a section of my business site. It’s always seemed a bit odd, though, since it wasn’t really business. (Giving away stuff for free doesn’t pay the bills now does it?). Furthermore, if that business ever went away, I’d still want to keep doing and publishing that stuff.
Self-Unification: Sounds weird, and it is. It falls somewhere between the first two, and has bothered me recently. It was the final straw that got me here typing now. I tend to cope with the complications of life by compartmentalizing my life, but many things fit more than one compartment. The aforementioned publishing issue is one major symptom of this.
I guess these are all facets of the same issue. I’m a developer at heart (I’d keep coding even if I was suddenly independently wealthy), and that creates tensions I have problems rectifying. If I was only a developer by day, it’d be fine — I’d leave work at work. I can’t leave it there though.
Heck, the reason I chose this profession is a story of its own, but one highlight is this: I was just starting my 4th year of an English Lit degree circa 1997, and still didn’t know what I was going to do with it (and was not a little panicky about that). I was wrapping up my 2nd or 3rd website when my “A-ha!” moment happened — I realized that a) I loved what I was doing, and b) I could get paid to do it.
I think my second “A-ha” has been more gradual. A major part of it has been the blog phenomenon (I’ll never forget my confusion at how google suddenly started returning a bunch of schmo developer’s personal sites when I was doing work research, and how it was not only extremely pertinent, but often better than the official documentation!). Another big part was reading the fairly amazing Cluetrain Manifesto (read it now!), which pretty much just verbalized what had been churning. This “A-ha” is basically that business is about people, including me, and so I can’t treat my career (my calling?) like a job. It’s not just what I do, or where I spend 8hrs/day — it’s part of me.
I consider myself extremely fortunate to have found a profession I love (even if it’s still by the “sweat of my brow” ), but I guess that love needs its own space.
I love to code.
(Perhaps that should by my blog tagline?)