The Tyranny of Choice

My problem in starting up a blog won't be the lack of topics, it'll be that I'll have too many.  Since pitching the idea of monetizing my blog to my eager investors (myself), I've come up with at least the following ideas (at least meaning I've probably forgotten at least two ideas and probably will forget another couple - or add a couple - before even finishing this section):

• A post on the fundamentals of starting to monetize a blog.
• A primer on distributed systems for non-tech folk and why monetizing a blog at scale shouldn't be prohibitively expensive.
• A discourse on the benefits and ailments of socialism and capitalism (though the two aren't diametrically opposed, but in today's world they sure seem to be).
• How to travel virtually.
• Getting started playing guitar (this is actually something I've been meaning to write for a long time).
• What are the next big things that civilization should tackle and in what order?
• A short story on someone hanging out in the Roman Forum a few years after the collapse of the Roman Empire.
• What steps can we do to simplify our lives?  I have an aching feeling I've written on this before, but it's probably worth a longer refresh with a new perspective.

I haven't yet done much research on the number of topics a blog should cover, but if I were a betting man (and I'm not), I'd bet that the conventional wisdom would likely state that I should focus on one or two topics to ensure a core audience.

The problem with that is that I'm more of a renaissance type of individual.  Or, more aptly, a jack of all trades and master of none.  If writing may be my talent, it's not necessarily delving into a deep topic.

This is not to say that one cannot plumb the depths of a seemingly narrow topic if given the desire and the will.  One of the most powerful quotes (really paraphrases, because I've searched high and low for the source but can't find it, because I can neither remember the exact quote nor can I remember the exact book) that I'll remember for the rest of my lucid life found me while I was considering applying to grad school.

A friend of mine had a book about getting into grad school and all of the typical pitfalls that occur while applying and attending school.  He was kind enough to let me borrow it, so I thumbed through it to peruse various sections relevant to me.  I'd been thinking for some time about what I'd want to write my thesis on if I made it into grad school.  One of the supposedly daunting issues of writing a thesis is that the work you do needs to be original research - as in, no one else in the field has ever developed a solution for the problem you're addressing.  For the longest time, I always assumed this meant I had to come up with something on par with Newton's discovery of gravitational principles, Einstein's theories of relativity, or Shakespeare's masterful use of iambic pentameter.  The book addressed the topic of thesis selection in some depth before ultimately stating something along the following lines:

Don't worry about picking a topic or about how broad or deep your provisional research topic may be.  Once you find something you're marginally interested in, ask the instructor - assuming you've learned about the topic through the courses you're taking - if you can assist with their current efforts.  Humans are amazingly adept at taking a topic that's seemingly boring or of narrow scope and turning it into a flourishing endeavor.

I followed that advice, and shortly after finishing either my first or second class on state automata in computer science, I bounded up to the professor at the end of the lecture and asked if there's any topic I could be of assistance with as a new grad student.  Turns out there was.  Shortly thereafter I began my journey learning about cellular automata, heading toward the only "A-ha!" moment of my life (when I woke-up from a light afternoon nap on the couch and figured out the principal sticking point to the problem I was tasked with), performing the elusive original research, and getting published as an author in a couple of academic journals.

So, to recap, the problem won't be that I have too few topics to write about, it's that I may try to research the world or astound you with my own navel-gazing abilities.  To that end, I've now written approximately 3 posts in the past four days about thinking about getting serious about my blog.  Those posts are north of 3,000 words already with further depths to plumb on the topic, if I so choose.

Regardless of whether or not I think this particular exercise is useful, I guess it's more important to ask, if I'm even remotely interested in increasing readership - are you entertained?