Last week I read a post that has slowed me down. It was called The Unproductive Writer's Guide to Success by Michael Hyatt. The point was that one really good post is more important than five bad blog posts. One reason I am blogging is from Michael Hyatt's suggestions. He has an incredible blog full of information and is constantly providing ideas worth following. He uses the Disqus system for comments, which is why I do. One thing that Disqus does is keep you up to date on the other comments made. Somehow my settings got changed so instead of just replies to m comments it sends an email every time someone comments (this is a bit frustrating but more so because I can't seem to change the settings to send people to this blog instead of my old blog site). As a result I have had my Inbox blowing up since he posted it several days ago.
An interesting phenomenon has been occurring with the comments. It is one I have seen before. Six years ago I was a participant in a local leadership development program, and the first meeting included a personality assessment. Normally when I do these I can gather what the questions are aiming to determine and steer it to skew the results. This time is probably the most accurate test I have ever taken because I was filling it out simultaneous with trying to contact friends and family setting up a trip to extract my family from the post-Katrina mess that Biloxi had become. As you can imagine the test was low on the priority list and as a result-there was no question analysis just answers. Again an oddity appeared in that the results matched the normal response I get which is that three categories are tied in the end.
The first night of the program a speaker came in to discuss the results of the testing for us, and he stereotypically gave examples for each of the four categories. Then he proceeded to ask us how different personality types would respond in certain situations. Once the ice was broken and everyone started talking, the responses became predictably stereotypical as well.
The start of comments for Mr. Hyatt's blog seemed well scattered between the "this doesn't apply to me" and the "that makes me feel better" ranges. Increasingly though the comments center more on people feeling better for not posting more often. Kind of a validation of their lack of productivity. Perhaps it is not so odd because those that disagreed with the post's content didn't bother to read the comments.
It has slowed me down in my own posting because it has made me think, am I worrying more about having something to post than I am on the quality of the post? In thinking about this I have gone back and looked at some of the posts. There are several posts I am more proud of, as well as several I believe I did rush out the door. Over the next few days I will slow my output down, mostly because I plan on re-vamping the site. There are a few bugs I have yet to work out with the website. This is an area where I valued doing something over doing something well, and for that I apologize. I will shortly posts on my biggest and best posts of last month as well as getting back to the thoughts and musings on Providence. Thank you for your patience.