The first Post for RFNJ was nearly 5 years ago on June 8, 2007. I'm not sure what I'd like to say about that just yet, except that it's turned out to be almost nothing of what I thought it would. In many ways I'm disappointed with my contribution to it. But contracts and professional commitments have limited me greatly. I can't write about the things I REALLY know (except in the broadest most general way) because people are paying me to tell them those things. And like it or not I have a family to feed.
With that said though, it's been much better received than I ever imagined, so how bad could it really be? As an analogy, imagine if Ray Kroc the founder of McDonald's had set out to make a really great five star restaurant but ended up with a clown and the ham-burglar instead. He might have been disappointed as well, but you can't really argue with public acceptance.
I have a few more days left before I have to come up with something genuinely profound to say about all this. I'm probably going to need them.
5 comments:
From point of view there are to sayings from Socrates....
From my perspective---Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.
I have gained from reading you.
For you Tom
The unexamined life is not worth living.
Tom I think you are constantly examining your life and the world around you.
Ill be goin away for awhile .Congrats on the 5 yr mark.
Happy 5th, now back to work!
You are a staple of my daily reading. Thanks for your efforts.
Tom,
I have been an avid daily reader since Derb posted "How to purchase your first shotgun" on the Corner. I love the daily thoughts. My only wish is that I could add more to the conversations.
Congratulations on your 5 year anniversary. Although it is silly for me to congratulate you for taking your time to tell anonymous strangers your thoughts. We should all be thanking you for sharing your insights, thoughts, and time. Keep up the good work and I look forward to my daily education.
An excellent point Steven...
Congrats aren't really in order are they? It's not like I'm meeting that basic threshold of maintaining a going concern. It costs me nothing (but time) and you who read this stuff nothing (but time) and I've always joked that I think it's worth at least that much.
I don't think there is even a measure of pride in continuing to do it at this point. What's to be proud of? Is there pride to be taken in the fact that I do something for free that no one would be interested in paying me for anyway? It's kind of like being an amateur taxi driver. You just show up and offer people rides without charging them anything. Everyone appreciates it (at least offered at that price), but that isn't the same as saying that they value it.
I guess it can also be thought of as that artist who really only paints (or whatever) for their own sake and waits tables or bar tends for a living. At the end there is a bunch of stuff lying around - some of which people might even like. But it hasn't exactly transformed the world in any way. the only difference is that the "artist" doesn't have to describe themselves as a bartender.
If anything maybe it's a demonstration of some character flaw on my part, or a mental illness or something. I literally can't keep my mouth shut when it comes to stuff like this. I'm still thinking about it.
It's not that I plan on stopping exactly either - I don't want to give you the wrong impression. I'm just kind of thinking about how much (or how little) it all actually means.
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