Muninn

Ok, I just looked over some of my past entries. I seem to have a very nerdy blog. I don’t even have any recent anti-Bush bashing postings, more general political rants, or the jokes that I think are a common feature of even academic blogs. The only posting I have recently that has any direct connection of my life here is on my new carrel, and what can get more nerdy than that? From a more nerdy point of view, how can I justify the time I spend posting these articles on books I’m reading, talks I’m attending, and thoughts I have about history? The answer is surprisingly simple. I actually benefit from this in a real way. In many cases I’m summarizing talks, papers, or books—or at least reproduce what I believe are interesting points. This is very helpful to me for at least three reasons: 1) It is great practice in writing. While there are important differences between the “blogging mode” and the “academic paper” mode, I do feel like I’m getting lots of practice in forming and organizing ideas, something which offers very broad benefits. 2) When you are forced to reproduce arguments in your own words, or extract from them points which may have been floating vaguely at the back of the mind as, “something I hope I’ll remember” then you help to anchor those points and thoughts within your own mind. 3) I have serious memory issues and fairly bad organization skills. In the future, this blog will serve as a useful archive of thoughts and to a lesser degree, events in my life.