Reflection 4 or The Devil Post

"Becoming an expert blogger"

This article in Scientific American draws some startling conclusions regarding expertise: Expertise does not depend on talent, but rather on effort. People have nothing innate that contributes to expertise. There is no fundamental difference between the violin virtuoso, the chess grandmaster, and the average Joe. The amount of practicing they have done is all that separates them, and meaningful practice is all that is needed to achieve expertise. This involves practicing at a higher level than can currently be achieved, and it involves practicing a great deal. Regardless, seemingly anyone can become an expert at anything, if they only put in the effort.

One complication presents itself to any would-be expert, though: How can meaningful practice be identified? In some cases, knowledge of the field or related fields will exist, and higher levels of achievement can be identified and worked towards. In other cases, identifying meaningful achievement can be nigh impossible. How can a novice know what expert practice looks like, much less identify incremental steps in that direction?

In the case of Blogging vs. Me, I am afraid the second case holds true. It is heartening to think that I can become an expert blogger/writer; however, I am not sure the goals I should have in mind or the qualities my writing should possess. That being said, I've given this a lot of thought, and here are three dimensions that I think I can try to improve:

Time. It takes me a long time to write a blog post. I would like to be able to write more quickly. Whether that means writing down more of my thoughts as they occur, or thinking things out more in advance, I'm not sure. I also tend to erase things I've written a second later if I have any doubts about them. Editing is important, but maybe I should try to wait until I have a finished piece to edit?

Tone. I need to develop a unified tone. When I am writing in the first person, my tone is much more informal than when I am writing in the third person. In no post has that been more apparent to me than this one, with the division between the first two paragraphs and the rest of the post. I guess that in general I'm inclined to write with a more formal tone, but it seems strange to do that when I am writing about myself. (Indeed, it feels strange to write about myself at all.) I tend to include contractions and useless phrases like "I guess" that wouldn't have a home in a more formal tone.

Topicality. I wish I would write about more interesting topics. To some extent, the topic of these reflections is prompted by the course. I have difficulty translating those prompts into worthwhile, (dare I say it) interesting topics. My most interesting post as of yet was, in my opinion, the one about zebra mussels. The others have been uninspired. My last post, about cheating, was the result of me thinking for a long time about the prompt (how to get people to open up in conversation) before realizing that I was a pretty strong example of the type of person who needs to be gotten to open up, not the type who gets others to open up. Running out of time, desperate for a topic, I chose to write about cheating, which we had covered in class already, even though I didn't really feel I had anything new to add. My first post was about blogging, and that's what this one is, too. It seems like a lot of fluff, and it feels forced, and it is. But I don't know how to choose better topics.

So that is what I think needs work: I have nothing to say, I say it poorly, and it takes me forever to say it. Sorry you had to read a novice's practice. Come back in 10,000 hours when I am an expert.