I’ve been reading Barry Ritholtz’ column in the Washington Post for years. I find his financial discussions erudite- and clearly written. Which is how I try to communicate with you. But, his blog today (when this was written) was of a different focus. He stated what he has learned from writing his 30,000 blog posts. (He has me beat by some 28,500!) And, I agree with much of what he wrote, which I will share with you now (with my twist, of course)!
Like my Friday night discussions (which could be considered similar to Talmudic arguments, where we each prod, poke, and demand explanations of how and why we do what we do), writing a blog helps us codify our thoughts. But, by researching the points, we become more secure in our knowledge and our beliefs. And, putting those up for the world to see means we really need to say what we know clearly- and why.
Barry also said writing our blog forces us to be better writers. Because we don’t want to bloviate- we want to educate and inform. And, we want to do so with as few words as possible. Because we want you to read our whole blog- and still want to come back for more.
Ritholtz also complained about “reader” comments. Too many of them are from trolls, hacks, or just looney birds looking to gain notoriety by glomming their name or sites onto ours. At one time, the comments were fantastic additions to our blogs. Now, I get 300 to 400 comments that have absolutely NO connection to the subject of my writing each and every day.
Now, Barry Ritholtz gets paid for his blog. The Washington Post does not get his column for free. But, he is right that advertising is a terrible business model for a blog. The price per click is abysmally low- and one has no control over what ad may or may not appear. As he said, “…if you are in in this for the money, you are wasting your time.”
Barry also stated one of the truisms that I continually aver. People lie to themselves. If we confront them with facts that don’t jive with their beliefs, they will simply disregard the facts and adhere to their (mistaken) beliefs. (This phenomenon is called cognitive dissonance.) All I can do is keep up with my research and proffer the facts. My job is to inform. I am not running for President.
He also talked how mainstream media originally ignored blogs- and now occasionally steal from them. That’s one of my bugaboos- seeing my thoughts as part of some other presentation- without giving me one lick of credit for their theft. (At least they had to type each of those words themselves. I don’t let anyone cut and paste from my blog.) Barry suggested that we post their plagiarism side by side with our blogs. Hmm. Stay tuned. I may just do that from time to time.
Barry also reminded me that our blog posts are one of the last bastions of meritocracy. It’s not our family name, our connections, our schooling that helps us garner readers. It’s the quality of our work. It’s providing original research and analysis, critical analysis of what that data purports, and making sure it’s understandable and engaging.
But, I disagree slightly that our connections are not a critical component of our blogging success. I know that every one of you who share my post with others- by tweeting, by Google plus, by posting on Facebook or sharing a link by eMail are critical to my success. And, I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart.
This was great for me to help me refocus. Sometimes when we join a month long blog challenge we start pumping out articles without doing due diligence. I have found myself short of time now and again and failed to make the post as interesting as it could be with just a little more research. Sorry to hear that you are not running for President, I am sure you are a much better choice than anyone of the current group.
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Thanks for that glistening bit of humor, Chef William. Now that I am back in the chair and able to type…
I have found the best way for me to get my blogs done is to campaign my writing. I write four or five blogs every two or three days. Then, they sit in the queue, and the day before they are “supposed to post”, I review them. I tweak the language, maybe add some new material that came to light during its (about 20 days of) gestation- or kill it entirely and choose a different post.
Maybe that could work for you?
Thanks for the comment and my chance to truly roll off my chair laughing.
Another way to define cognitive dissonance is “I have already made up my mind. Don’t confuse me with the facts.”
My question is as always are these facts all there is? Are they the truth? Are they possibly from people who are biased?
For every clinical study there is an equal and opposite clinical study. Where is the truth? How do we know what stats were left out?
Finally this blog is not about facts at all. It is your interpretation of an article you read that is an interpretation of someone’s experience.
There is in this this blog a bias toward your interpretation of certain thoughts that are opposed to Barry’s. It starts with “I disagree slightly.” This is a minor paragraph at the bottom of a blog that you hope people will read to, but is perhaps the true crux of the entire article.
Yes, you did do a little foreshadowing for those who caught it (“with my twist, of course”) to encourage people to read to the end to find out where your opinion varies from Barry’s.
But which of you knows scientifically or truthfully whether blog success is based on networking? I would say in his case he doesn’t need to depend on any people because of his platform. You, on the other hand, are very dependent on your connections.
So which of you is right? Both. And what does that say about facts and truth?
It says that we humans need to be open to some cognitive dissonance because we cannot know all the facts, only the facts in evidence (not all of the facts-period). And we will, therefore, hold to our biases unknowingly.
Please take this to your Shabbat roundtable discussion this Friday night and let me know what the answer is.
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Whoa, there, Ann…
1. Your statement that every clinical study has an equal and opposite study is patently false. Except- perhaps- for psychotropic drugs, where we still lack sufficient knowledge about the brain to discern what or why things work or don’t.
2. And, both Barry and I researched our facts. The fact (yes, the fact) that you don’t see them is totally in concert with your first line- your mind is made up and you don’t want to be confused by the fats.
3. And, I provided my ‘twist’ on Barry’s post for each and every paragraph of my post- with the exception of the one that says Barry gets paid for his blog.
Perhaps you should study up a little more about cognitive dissonance.
30 000 blog posts! Very impressive. I have to say that I don’t know why I blog. I just do. Maybe, at some point, it is best to not over analyse why we do things? having said this, I agree with your/Barry points on comments: I get a lot of spam, point scorers and the likes. I don’t understand why.
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I think if you reach a certain point of notoriety, then these folks are hoping to get their sites (or advertising) noticed- and paper our blogs with their nonsensical entries, Muriel….
I would love to get software that prevented anyone from cutting and pasting from my blog, although I am not sure I would even know how to find out someone was stealing. Right now, I am so not-popular I probably don’t have to worry about that. On an unrelated note, I wonder that anyone would want to run for President. You have just proved your sanity, I fear.
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Ah, Alana… I will send you a link to some software that does the trick, Alana.
I wonder why some folks run for office, too. The media- and the opposing team- seem to have nothing else to do but search every nook and cranny to discredit you. And, if they find nothing- they invent a problem…