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July 24, 2007

Off topic, but good

Editors - those who help edit a piece of writing - are unappreciated. But here is an article giving them the praise that is their due.

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Part of the reason I don't post more often is that I don't think about doing it enough. Shame on me.

But I think there's another, subconscious reason: I have an inflated sense of the effort required to write something, and because of the perceived effort, I don't instinctively lean towards making the investment of time required to write a blog entry.

For several years I was an analyst at Forrester Research. While there, I learned that writing is a hard job, and good writing is rare. We strived to write well, with tight, efficient communications that had a consistent voice. Having a good editor — and being a good editor — was a key element of the process.

Blog writers, myself included, don't normally have an editor or editing step. So I have this natural internal feeling that whatever I write in a blog entry won't be “up to snuff.&rdquo. The Salon article above doesn't do anything to make me feel any more inclined to blog more often, but it does help lots of people understand that good writing is hard, that good editing makes things better, and that the blogosphere doesn't have the benefit of editors. I wish I the benefit of one. I'd feel happier about what I write here.

July 11, 2007

The problem with Wikipedia

This couldn't be more true. See The problem with Wikipedia.

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July 02, 2007

Pro cycle racing is beautiful - but brutal

Ok, so I'm not the most prolific blogger.... ;-)

However, I am a serious fan of professional bicycle racing, particularly the pro tour in Europe. While it's a popular spectator sport in Europe, with big purses and large fan attendance, it's (sadly) hardly on the radar screen here in the U.S.

Besides being a spectacularly difficult sport of human strength and endurance, it's also fraught with huge danger. Crashes are not uncommon, and having been in a couple of cycling crashes myself, I can tell you that:

  • It hurts a lot to go down;
  • These guys more often than not get up and finish a race after a crash -- a decidedly superhuman effort in my opinion;
  • Anybody that doesn't cringe when they watch a crash, and who doesn't have huge respect for these athletes who put themselves on the line with nothing except some nylon and a helmet on their bodies, is way too closed-minded to be a friend of mine.

The folks who organize the Tour de France have put together a video of the notable crashes in the 2007 tour. While the Tour is the race everybody in the U.S. knows about, the summer cycle racing season is full of amazing races, with spectacular athletic efforts, exciting finishes, and too many crashes.

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