These are the ramblings of a young married couple in the great City of Chicago.

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Passion

Thursday, 4 December 2008 by Jacob Tomaw

I just finished watching “tonight’s” Daily Show. John Stewart interviewed Arianna Huffington about a book the Huffington Post lent its name to about blogging. One of the topics was what you should blog about. Ms Huffington talked about blogging your passions, both public and private.

I have been thinking a lot about the nature of this blog. A lot of people check here for family updates. I love writing about Jonah, Joscelynn, and general things happening in our life. That is not going to stop. tfl will never stop being the plase to learn about what we are doing.

I want it to be more though. I want it to be more not because I want to have tens of thousands of readers, but because I want to write.

I like to write because it is fun. I like it because it helps me organize my thoughts and learn. I like it because it might spark conversation. I understand that I might be a poor writer and make a lot of mistakes, but I like that aspect too. I really do not write all that often and with the help of readers pointing out mistakes I can become a better writer.

That is why I blog, but what should I blog about? What am I passionate about?

I like to read about economics and political philosophy. I also like to point out articles I find interesting. However, I am not trained in politics or economics and I do not know enough to come up with original content. My only hope of making interesting posts in this area is by asking some questions on a topic, giving what I think are the answers, and hoping to spark conversation in the comments.

I like to design and write software. No, I love it. I am passionate about software, however I have never made this a technical blog. I would like to write more about software engineering, but i don’t know if i would want to mix it into this blog. I would love to be some kind of technical journalist, but I don’t now where to begin with this passion. Rob Reinhold, Ryan McHale, and I have tried off and on to have a blog at Three Tech Guys, but we have not been terribly regular about it. Even if I were regular, I don’t think I am very good at it.

I am somewhat passionate about Learning German. This never seems to manifest itself in anyway other than bothering my family by speaking gibberish to them or talking about how the gibberish is related to English.

Other possibilities are religion, home brewing, and making stuff up (aka the history of the Congress Hotel).

Those are the things I think I am passionate about. Many of you probably know me better than I know myself. What do you think I might be passionate about?

—–
After editing and proofing this post (I know it is hard to believe), I think what I am most passionate about is asking people questions and learning what they think and why they think it. I am just being curious, but the natural thing for people to do is become defensive. Most people, including me, tend to become defensive when challenged. I think if the right tone can be found, the curiosity will come out more than the criticism. However, I don’t know how to do that well and I have no idea how this could ever work as a blog.

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One Response to “Passion”

  1. Kristoffer Says:
    December 9th, 2008 at 8:00

    I like reading your blog regardless of the topic or content. That being said, I would be more likely to participate in discussions if there were open-ended questions that the author posed.

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