Serendipity and Learning

 Two decades or so ago, blogging was a big thing. This blog was started in 2011 - 13 years ago to this month. Blogging was great, because now suddenly everybody got a place to write and you read thinkers off the mainstream and hear their raw thoughts. Among others, Seth Godin, Marginal Revolution and several others and quite a few in India as well. And I started off a blog in 2004 and wrote it till 2014. Parallely, I started this blog in 2011 and it continues.  But over the years, as twitter appeared, blogging disappeared and it became micro blogs and slowly blogging and bloggers disappeared.  But as it happens, it has made a rather lovely comeback - initially via medium - and now via substack. And we can read entrepreneurs, writers and their thoughts on substack.  So, one patterns repeat and two, on the internet, there will always be space for good content!

 If you, by chance go to a recipe site these days, the recipe will start with a story. And then a pointless anecdote and then other recipes and finally deep down is the actual recipe. Some of the not so sadistic recipe sites have a "jump to recipe" button. The reason is probably misplaced incentives . But that does explain it fully.  While writing a book (as in my own experience) there is a temptation to write and fill pages. But the reader will lose interest. The trick is to keep it short and punchy. This is difficult when the goal is to write x pages or y words.  In a TED talk - there are so many rambling stories that I find it easier to dive into the transcript, get the core idea and move out.  I was recently tasked with looking for some good online courses on a platform. There is so much rambling - somehow that is seen as necessary for the course to be seen as something with gravitas.  Or a podcast. So many of them have so many unrelated anecdotes it is impo...

A few years ago, I was at a panel discussion. And I realized that I was able to articulate my points way better than I perhaps did a few years ago. The difference? At first, I patted myself on the back and gave myself extra brownie points for the growth of my intelligence, articulation and felt smug about it. But when I analyzed it further, I realized that the process of writing it out had made the process easier. And the cause for it was my blog. This blog. I realized this unconsciously, but it just struck me how writing enables the speaking process. The fact that I had written about various kinds of learning experiences over the few years made a difference. When we write, we are channelizing our thoughts (which are unorganized, in a cloud) into a more tangible means. This is a far more stickier process than thinking about it or reading about it (atleast for me). And as you write more, more of thoughts are taken out of the waiting queue and newer thoughts (hopefully better e...