The recent flap over the New York Times about bloggers keeling over in their key board and my subsequent post to Doc Searls and Hugh MacLeod helped to clarify some of the reasons why I live my current job as a tech blogger (among some of my other endeavors, But it was Louis Gray post early this morning that made me realize what it was that continue to drive me forward in this career.

The simple fact is that I love the ability to express myself and I equally look forward to any and all comments that are made for individual posts - good or bad. I love the chance to being able to interact with people that normally I wouldn’t be able to. But the most important reason is that I continue find myself learning new things and this is the best gift that we can give ourselves. It is even better when we have been proven wrong in something we believed in and done in such away that we don’t find ourselves being belittled or insulted.

I don’t consider myself to be a headline chaser or a Techmeme stalker; even though I do occasionally looking through Techmeme if only for a larger group of reference points for something that I am but that is generally the extent of my use of things like that. After all FriendFeed does a much better job of being a reference point. As Louis said in his post:

Due to this understanding that I’m not bound to play by the old-school journalist fears, I’m really having fun doing what I’m doing. While I have had the opportunity to break the news on some promising young services, and have seen that number rapidly grow over time, I’m blogging for the sake of writing and sharing and communicating, on those things I really find interesting. If I’m keeping silly hours, it’s because I choose to. If I choose to write about TiVo one day and Toluu or Technorati the next, I’ll do it. And if I’m gaining weight, it’s because I’m getting lazy and like eating, not because "my blog made me do it".

For me blogging has become another artistic outlet what doesn’t involve chasing the next big story or a flashy headline.That doesn’t mean that I would be stupid enough to turn down any opportunities to break the news about something new or interesting - but that isn’t the end all be all of blogging for me.

I don’t write for the headline just as I don’t blog for the money - even though that would be nice and helpful. being able to take Kim out for dinner once in awhile would make it all worth while; not to mention being able to keep my computer something better than something held together with duct tape and baling wire,

No - I blog because I love it and there is nothing better than getting involved with an intelligent conversations over ideas. That is the joy in being a blogger.

Conversation Tags: blogs, blogging, bloggers, New York Times, Techmeme