Writing & Dreaming

Years ago, when I started writing, I promised myself that I wouldn’t write to please. I would write for me. That meant no topic was off limit.

However, as I wrote and garnered some fan following, I found myself narrowing my scope of writing. I guess it was partly due to me empathizing with my readers - if you’ve started subscribing to my posts for one topic (say Product management), I would be wrong to push you to read on things like Organizational Behavior.

I transitioned from writing for me, to writing for you.

And it’s not your fault, nor mine. I just got carried away, comparing my engagement with that of others. LinkedIn was the worst. My posts, that I thought were nuanced got far fewer engagement scores compared to posts that were generic (Who hates Scrum masters? Almost everyone. Because they make you do things you promised you’d do. Duh.). I tried to go with that approach to just get that engagement, but that made me detest writing as a process.

It wasn’t genuine.

So I stopped. For a good half a year, I took a break from LinkedIn and writing in general.

But my mind, it couldn’t stop thinking. You see, writing is a like a pressure release to me. I write to let off the steam - from the constant whirring of machinery of thought.

Eventually, I decided that I would write, but only on a platform that was not pushed down people’s throats. My content would be free of judgement from myself and you.
That would mean no metrics, no likes and page views.

And so, I’ve begun. This blog, is the manifestation of my need to keep things simple and free. I will ensure that parts of this blog are free to tracking and engagement metrics (or at least make it in a way where there is enough social proof that you know this is legit, but at the same time, not bother me).

I don’t want to build a subscriber base and monetize it.
I don’t want to build a following and sell them courses.
I want discourse on topics that I have some opinion on.
I want references to my mind that I can pull up.
I want my words to carry authority and authenticity without the proof of either.
I want the impossible.

I think this quote sums up what I want with my writing:

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours - Henry David Thoreau