What to do with my thoughts? Blog Season 1 Episode 1
I, like many people, have thoughts. Some good thoughts, some bad thoughts. Thoughts on entrepreneurship, technology, economy, politics, comedy, god, etc. Some of these thoughts are ones that I like, some I think can be useful to others, some thoughts I don’t have fully thought out yet but am curious what other people think about them. Most of the thoughts aren’t worth much, but you never know what a thought can turn into. Nonetheless, I have an unresolved question of what to do with my thoughts.
Journaling is an option, thought-ship 101. Also known as diarying (?). Have your thought, write it down in a place that only you can look, and repeat. It’s good for remembering thoughts, being precise about them, and guarding sensitive thoughts. But it’s hard to get other people to look at those thoughts and get their thoughts on your thoughts.
Talking with others is an option. Talking is a great way to get someone else’s thoughts on your thoughts quickly. It could be a friend, a family member, a teacher, a coworker. And with talking, you get the thoughts that people commit to language as well as the thoughts they commit to their face, which helps you think better about your thoughts. But talking means finding the right person at the right time to talk about the right thing. Logistically that can be very difficult with work and grocery shopping and going to the gym. So talking is good but you might not be able to talk about all of the thoughts you want to.
Another thought vehicle that has gotten pretty big is “social” media. This tackles the logistics problem perfectly - pretty much everyone is on there and you can send them your thoughts instantly. When I first saw this I thought “Wow, this is a great place for thoughts. I will put all of my thoughts on here.” But there are some tradeoffs…
For starters, you can’t just put any thought on there. Your thoughts have to meet the guidelines on thoughts that the platform owners set forth. In some cases they have limits on thought length. And while technically everyone can see your thoughts, the platforms have to pick which thoughts to show because there are so many people thinking on there. So they choose which thoughts to show, sometimes in ways you find fair and in other ways you might not.
I could go on with some of the other issues with social media, but the only other thought critique I will mention here is how addictive the thoughts of others are. Most people on social media never share how they think about something! They just consume other people’s thoughts. I myself would spend 4-5 hours a day looking at how others thought, and that crowded out my ability to have my own thoughts. So as far as finding good places for my thoughts, I have steered clear of social media for a while.
Maybe one of the most productive things you can do with your thoughts is make money with them. If you have a really good thought, you can sell it (and it’s physical embodiments) to other people. This can be really hard and you are most likely to fail (I’ve tried). In that case, you have to go help someone else sell their thoughts so that you can put a roof over your head. This can be a great arrangement - getting paid for your thoughts is not a bad living in a historical sense. You can also learn new thoughts through the job. But there’s no free lunch. Many places have a concept of thoughts that are appropriate for work. The rest? It is best those thoughts are thought elsewhere. Understandable, it just doesn’t help my current predicament.
“Ahhhh! Connor!” you might be saying at this point. “I know the perfect place for your thoughts! A place where amateur AND professional thinkers make thoughts constantly! SCHOOL!” Yes, my dear reader, I have heard of school.
I actually went to school for many years at various levels. I wish I took thoughts more seriously while in school, but that is neither here nor there. The problem is that for where I am right now, I don’t think that school is the answer either. It would be cool to think thoughts, professionally. But school is expensive. And quite frankly it seems like a lot of commotion and credentialing when I can think my thoughts from right here in my bedroom. I don’t need them to stamp my thoughts as “good”. I really just need a place to put the thoughts and work on them and share them.
I do like that school gives you a map to learn new thoughts (often called a curriculum or syllabus). It’s not perfect, but it can definitely be helpful in getting started. When you leave school, you lose that map to explore new thoughts. But I’m hopeful that wherever I put my thoughts can become a kind of self-guided curriculum or syllabus of a life towards better thoughts.
To recap, I’m looking for a place to put my thoughts. It should allow for sharing of the thoughts, easily. I want to own the way that those thoughts are presented and be free from a deluge of thoughts from others. I want to be able to share these thoughts without fear of getting canned, and without the fuss of becoming a “professional thinker”.
So I’m going to start a blog.