I received a response to the post on KLM’s response to the climate crisis (I’ve stopped calling it climate change) that asked about the purpose of the blog.
This reader politely explained that he liked a majority of the posts he read – he just didn’t appreciate the political activism. It admittedly took me a second to realize that notes on the climate crisis were being perceived as political activism – but, I’m getting used to most issues being political issues in the United States. :-)
While I wrote out a short answer to his first question on email, I thought it was a good one to pose for myself to answer over the weekend – what in the world is this blog about?
I was an unhappy university student in 2008. After a month or so of searching for the cause, I arrived at extreme insecurity that had spawned a fear of failure. I reasoned that a way out of these fears might be to write about them on a blog. And, maybe, just maybe, someday I’d begin to view the challenges and failure I face as learning experiences. In addition, since I didn’t have the discipline to do anything everyday, I thought a learning a day would be a worthy challenge.
Learning is a broad term. And, it has evolved over the years by evolving as my thinking has evolved as well as causing the evolution of my thinking.
Over the years, I’ve realized that I tend to obsess about 3 broad themes that I value – people I care about, learning from my experiences and learning how to learn, and attempting to make a positive contribution. In short – people, learning, and contribution.
As a result of the focus on people I care about, there are many posts about relationships and human behavior as well as a post nearly every week on lessons learnt as a parent.
Next, learning is a broad category. The three biggest buckets of learning posts tend to be – i) reflections from my experiences and conversations, ii) observations on events, and iii) notes on living with a growth mindset.
And, finally, contribution. My thinking on contribution has evolved over the years. Initially, a lot of my writing used to be about technology in the broad strokes. Over time, however, this has crystallized into three areas of focus – i) notes on product management (what I do for a living), ii) the impact of technology on jobs and the future of work (again, what I do for a living), and iii) the climate crisis.
As I spend a lot of my time work thinking about product management and jobs, writing here is the primary outlet for my evolving thesis on how we might approach the climate crisis and how I could contribute. So, there’s going to be a lot more where that KLM post came from.
This is what makes following this blog a crazy journey. It took me a while to articulate that difference between writing for yourself vs. writing for others. This blog is an example of the former. As a result, the topics won’t resonate every day. Some days, they’ll provoke. On others, they’ll challenge. And, on a few, they’ll resonate.
That’s why it will remain a niche blog – roller coasters aren’t for everyone.
But, the reason it is a blog and not a journal is because there’s the hope that there are a few of you who won’t mind the roller coaster… and maybe even like it?
It is why I only have deep gratitude and appreciation for those of you who stick along for the ride and write in from time to time to share your notes, lessons, and reflections.
It all means a lot.
And, for those of you who’ve subscribed recently and have been wondering what this blog is about, I hope it helps.
