Euan Semple shares a fantasy at his Obvious Blog …

“A business where everyone blogs. Everyone thinks about what they are doing and writes about what they are doing. From the top to the bottom, the edges to the middle. Everyone awake and bouncing off each other intellectually as they get more and more effective at whatever they do.”

Just imagine any organisation, field or community of practice. Now imagine everyone openly sharing their observations, thoughts and ideas. Where everyone’s input is valued in a culture of saying yes more than no.

Source: Viv McWaters

Neil Perkin published the ‘blog post of the month’ recently. In it, blogger Chris Dixon writes about The 2 Kinds of People in this World …

“You’ve either started a company or you haven’t.” he starts off.

Euan has me thinking of a different ‘2 types of people in this world’ … People who blog and those who don’t. Now, I could get all high and mighty about the virtues of blogging, but I’ll resist and expand in the same way Chris did about those who have started a company.

“Blogging” doesn’t mean that you just have a blog, it means that your blog is an extension of what you are thinking, learning and practicing. When you stop blogging you might even start to feel disconnected from your own mind (I know I do). It’s a living, growing, emerging space that allows you to share ‘stuff that matters’ with the world. Even though blog posts come from the individual mind, your ideas, in reality, emerge from a network of connected minds. Having a ‘living’ blog connects you to others and the space between the blogs contains all of the life and magic.

A blog is a space where you might just start somewhere and start writing … about something. Posts are often first-cut ideas that are unrefined and feel like a draft. And it’s those offerings that often resonate with the field and spark off new ideas somewhere else. Bloggers might hear comments from others (those who don’t write & publish) like “How do you find the time?” … “Isn’t it just an egotistical repository of self admiration?” Those ideas that come to us when walking or sleeping have a place to be born. The act of writing helps bring unformed ideas to life.

Importantly, your blog allows you to publish ‘edgy’ stuff that will get criticized by some and applauded by others. You put your ideas on the line with your heart of your sleeve.