Blocks

You can’t think yourself out of a writing block; you have to write yourself out of a thinking block.  — John Rogers

These words are very true, and I have the experience to back them up.

Last week, I spent 30 minutes writing non-stop. I didn’t think about what I was writing, nor did I stop to even see if what I wrote flowed. At the end, I just published it. The premise behind that exercise was to not just pad my monthly word count, but to simply see what ideas come to mind as I write.

The result was quite interesting. There were clear transitions between topics, but each of those topics was a morph from the one previous. It’s as though when I was discussing one thing, another idea started forming in my mind.

Another prime example is just today when I was discussing SageTV. I started going on about QAM 256 and channel bandwidth and other non-related stuff all to come back to the point of there being better ways to go about executing a set top box in 2015 like what Google’s doing.

This is what Rogers is talking about. I could easily have another couple posts right there about things I have at least some knowledge of. I could explain the intricacies of QAM and bore the hell out of you. I could also explain why open-sourcing a set-top box is both a great and a terrible idea.

Perhaps I will. Who knows. The point is that I wouldn’t have even thought of those topics to talk about had I not written about them.

This is one of the many reasons why I like writing on a regular basis. There isn’t some massive end-goal in mind. I’m not trying to build a mega-blog full of money-making ideas that I can litter with ads and end up in a penthouse. Not even close. I write because it stimulates my mind and gives me new things to talk about and new ideas to ponder. There isn’t another medium of creativity where I’ve been able to work out how to write at a pace of almost 3500 words an hour.

Some say I should really write a book.