Monday, May 05, 2008

The Scott Adams dilemma

Scott Adams (Dilbert) decided to blog less because it did not help his career.

He did get personal satisfaction from blogging. But it did not push Dilbert, which I think he should not have expected anyway. Dilbert brings audience to his blog, not vice versa. If Madonna wrote a cookbook, her singing/fame would bring (some) audience to the cookbook, not vice versa.

Also I think he should not have expected to collect a great book from blog postings. I don't think that good blog writing is the same as good book writing. The content in a book is meant to be long, and polished, and thoughtful. The content on a blog is quick and dirty, and meant to be read in five minutes per post. Nobody is going to read a 20,000 word philosophical essay on a blog. They are just very different animals.

I don't think that anybody who is very successful in one area or another, has ever Expanded The Empire by doing something as frivolous as blogging. Such a person should realize that if he wants to blog, it should just be for fun, for the feedback, and for self-expression. Those who have become successful on blogging itself are few, and they work so hard that I doubt it's all that much fun anymore. And I don't think they have time for another career that the blogging can support.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think I'll follow Scott's example. But I'm going to eat less, because eating doesn't help my career.

If you could see me, you'd know that this is a good move for me.

Thanks, Scott!

Anonymous said...

His blog put me off his cartoons. He said some very stupid things which made it difficult to appreciate the genuine observations of the cartoons.

Paul Sunstone said...

I guess I blog because it challenges me. If it ceased to be challenging, I think I'd loose interest.

Anonymous said...

His blog is abysmal. He prompted a nice post war between him and a biologist about evolution. Adams removed the offending post after the poopstorm got too ugly. It inspired this – Scott Adams’s mother, Part 1