You’d think that I’d be able to put two and two together and realize that a blog is a long term liability with little likelihood of making my life or career better. And it lasts forever. I can delete the website, but records of my misguided thoughts are indelibly written on the face of the Internet. Why do I do this?
I write this today because I frequently get questions from colleagues about my blog posts. If I say something too positive about Google or too negative about Microsoft, they say, “you just are anti-Microsoft now that you joined Google”. And, if I say something negative about Google, they say, “are you planning on leaving or something?” Why would what I write on this blog lead anyone to such a conclusion?
I guess to some, loyalty to their colleagues and employer would include always speaking positively about them. I guess there is some truth to that. But, does loyalty and dedication mean that you can’t publicly criticize? Maybe I’m just a jerk!
Unfortunately for me, when I write, I always write to be persuasive. After all, if you aren’t trying to make a point, what is the point? But, I have the tendency to be so absolute in my specific argument that readers often want to apply my position on a specific to topic to more general topics. This is a fallacy of the reader, and not a fallacy of the writer.
Nonetheless, regardless of who is misinterpreting the facts, I am the one with the reputation from this blog. It doesn’t matter if I love working at Google, because when a reader who may be a VP at Google reads an individual negative post, they might think I am not a team player; my position in that single article was very specific.
So, to all you would-be bloggers out there – don’t start. Unless you’re really trying to build something, blogging is a liability you cannot ditch. It may seem like a place to write interesting things, but those things will come back to haunt you. As for me, well, I guess I’m in it now. This post marks my 400th blog entry. It’s too hard for me to delete!
Lastly, let me set the record straight. Regardless of what I say in my blog posts, I think Microsoft and Google are both great companies. While I am worried that Microsoft is on the verge of dying due to its inability to migrate from the Windows albatross; and while I am worried that Microsoft will resort to leveraging its monopoly to ruthlessly crush Google; the fact is that nothing in life is nearly so dramatic or black and white. It’s just the way I write.
Oh – but I really do think all lawyers are evil. That’s not just being persuasive, that’s a fact.