Blogging autocommoditizes itself via the branding of the form factor suggesting "hobbyist in their bathrobe." Blogging makes the date of publication (and sequence of posts) central to perceived value of the piece, causing it to depreciate to ~0 for *no darn reason* within days.
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Blogging sets people up on a content treadmill, and if you get off the treadmill you have a "dead" blog, which makes you a failed blogger in many's eyes. I wrote a book once. I haven't written a book since. Nobody has ever suggested I am a failed author.
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Because all of the above are known about blogs, it is excessively difficult to cause non-blogging decisionmakers in your life to value them effectively for the purpose of deciding to collaborate on them, reward you professionally for professional work done in making them, etc.
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People reading blogs have interesting preferences with regards to the form factor which may not match your interests, such as a strong preference for them being short-form. There are many pieces whose natural length is not 800 words. If you call them a blog, readers nope out.
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There are people who are engaged in the life of the mind who would seriously consider reading your blog on an iPhone for 4 minutes on the subway to be an adequate, effective environment for idea exchange, which they *would never consider in any other context.*
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I enjoy your writing style, but sometimes (and indeed in this case), I find myself reading a tweet stream four or five times, trying to figure out whether you're arguing for or against
I guess either way it's thought-provoking… -
Pro-writing, anti-blogging, virtually everyone I've ever interacted with professionally should have a website they own with three essays on it.
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I wish more people realized how unimportant *writing* was to blogging/tweeting well. You can be a great blogger — and totally mediocre writer — if you can "report" well. There's too much emphasis on style, not enough on structured thinking.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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To what degree do your comments apply to newsletters as well? I see some key advantages of owning your distribution directly, which means that even though the form factor of the writing itself is basically the same, impact and value can be *much* higher
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I have a horse in this race though, having just started a newsletter this week (http://InnovationatScale.substack.com )
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