Day 2: Pre-Festival Insights
On the flight, I had taken some notes about "who I am" so I could better figure out how to describe myself, and had a slight shift in perspective: my blog tagline isn't really accurate. If you go to the home page and look at the title, you'll see it says David Seah: Design, Productivity, Empowerment, Inspiration. Categorically speaking, these are all topics I write about fairly consistently, but the implication is that this is the "purpose" behind my writing. That and the current structure of the website has me feeling boxed in, until I realized that it wasn't that big a deal and I should just start writing again regardless of my worry of further confusing visitors stumbling across the site. Anyway, here's the shift in perspective I experienced: while I do write about those topics, the purpose of this website all along has been to have conversations. This may have been apparent all along, because the way I write tends to be conversational in the first place. One of the first comments I ever got, back when only a few people knew about my tentative steps onto the web, was from Ged, who I hadn't talked to in years. He said something to the effect that it was fun to follow my ramblings because it was like I was "right there". A few readers who have met me in person have commented (favorably, I think) that the way I write on the blog and the way I am in person are practically the same. At the time I took that as a sign that I had finally gotten comfortable with my writing, but in hindsight it might mean that I just like having conversations with people no matter what the medium.
I've never felt 100% sure about the focus of this blog, but I think I'm on the right track to say that I am pursuing conversations on topics that I find interesting, and it is the conversation itself that I enjoy. This dovetails nicely with the other shifts in perspective I've had lately:
- On Design and Development: I design not because I like making things look nice; I design because I like making stories.
- On Business Focus: Just because I am skilled at "interactive development" and "graphic design" doesn't mean my business focus follows. Those are just part of my kit of tools. I am really in the business of investigating the real story and fabricating a physical plot device that moves everyone along toward the happy ending.
and now:
- On Purpose of the Blog: I'm not creating a resource for productivity tools, etc. I am creating a repository of daily conversations around selected topics. While there are some useful tools here, my focus should be really to create a site with conversational magnetism. If people stick around, I'd like it to be for the reason that they feel like they're welcome and the conversation is stimulating.
So I've flipped a few things around for me, and it's starting to feel right. I have no idea how I'm going to boil this down into a 30-second hallway introduction, so I'll probably just go with my strengths: "I'm a productivity tool designer and blogger". Not 100% accurate or comprehensive, but enough to get a conversation rolling.
