Apr
9
“Narrow it down to the front of one building on the Main Street of Bozeman. The Opera House. Start with the upper left-hand brick.”
Persig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
As I listened to Merlin Mann and John Gruber talk about quality of content as the key to creating a successful blog (well, anything, really), I heard an echo of this exact thought. In Zen, Phaedrus, in his quest to define Quality, finds this way of narrowing down to smaller and smaller details frees the writing blocks of his students. Once that threshold of detail is reached, the words start flowing - and then pretty soon it’s a flood. In a good way. Merlin suggests starting your expertise on the one, tiny thing that you know about and that you care about. That’s where your expertise lies, and that’s where you know you can adequately write. That’s where quality begins.
