I was recently introduced to the online writing of Nate Holdren, a "legal historian of capitalism." I saw him talking to the cartoonist Tom McHenry on Bluesky. Tom said he liked the conversational tone of Nate's newsletter. I like Tom's work, so I was interested in seeing what Tom likes in turn.
The reason I bring this up today is because Nate is very clear in his writing that he "writes to think." I'm not much of a Marxist scholar myself, I'm barely even a Marxist hobbyist, so I find his actual writing to be a bit too academic for my reading purposes. That's fair, he's an actual professor. But I do like the notion of writing to think.
I've been journaling on and off for a long time. It's hard to say when I first started, it's been fairly sporadic throughout my life. However, I've been journaling much more consistently in recent years. Mostly on my phone, sometimes in actual physical notebooks I keep in my work bag.
Every day is good, at least once a week is fine. That's how I measure it.
Anyways, I like writing. I clearly do it a lot. I got my degree in it, basically. So, journaling is good if only to keep me writing. Keeps me in practice. Jobs don't require much writing these days, and the ones that do? Well, apparently AI will take that over for us. That's a whole separate post though.
Journaling is private. Nobody sees the journal. Sometimes I think about going through the trouble of printing out my digital journal and binding it so that there's some sort of physical artifact of my interior life. My mother kept a journal. I found it among her personal effects after she died. It was from before she had met my father. It's a strange feeling, reading it. Only read the first couple of pages. I can relate to my mother-when-she-was-young.
I read through my old journals every now and then. It's a good way to measure up the present against the past.
I do want to share, though. Not everything but certain things. Not to everyone but certain people.
The boys were watching a compilation of moments from Jerma streams. The video game streamer. It seemed to be a compilation of moments where Jerma opens up to his audience, accidentally. Jerma does an impression of a parent yelling at a child, and you get the impression this was how he was yelled at. He makes a comment about a certain insecurity. It seemed perverse to have this packaged as a video and cast onto my television screen.
I had been working an idea in my head about doing my own video project. Something where I make and and tell little story vignettes through The Sims. Seeing that Jerma compilation was so thoroughly discouraging. If that's what success as a "content producer" looks like, I want nothing to do with it.
Seems like it's not a complicated task to become popular. Hard work, but not complicated. Follow algorithmic trends. Engage. Promote. Edit. Package. Brand. Sounds miserable.
I realize so much of what I express online is influenced by influencers. Subconsciously or consciously.
So, that's another reason I like blogging. I can express myself. There's no threat of making money on here. I look at the analytics, it seems like 6 people read this blog. More if I post on Bluesky.
Writing for an audience, even a small one, helps. It helps me finish my thoughts. I'm able to draw conclusions. It helps me think.