Don't You Have Anything Better To Do?

Hello again! Has it already been a week since we last spoke? My goodness, how the time flies. Today I am going to talk to you about the common cuddlefish complaint, "don't you have anything better to do?" But first, this aside: I don't know precise figures of hits-per-day, but this blog tends to get upwards of 100 comments per post. While there are a lot of regular contributors, there's also a lot of new and anonymous comments each time. The conclusion I am making here is this: the cuddlefish that complain that we're just jealous that we're not successful are unlikely to ever write something that gets as many viewers or as much discussion as this blog. Food for thought!

Moving on. Don't I have something better to do? Let's take a good hard look at that sentence, because it is loaded. First: it implies that the blog is a waste of time. Second: it implies that the blog takes a lot of time to write. Third: it implies that writing this blog is the only thing we ever do.

The most valid of these attacks is the first one. Writing for this blog, and commenting on the blog and so on, is pretty much purely for entertainment, and you could argue that doing something just to amuse yourself is not the best use of your time. However, participating in the community here also serves some other functions:

• The best way to improve one's writing is to write frequently. This blog gives everyone involved the chance to write frequently.
• The best way to improve at skills of analysis is to analyze frequently. What do we do if not analyze XKCD here?
• Ditto critical thinking, developing a coherent argument, et cetera. The comment threads are frequently a forum for intelligent discussions (and also frequently a forum for brainless cuddlefish arguments) where involved parties develop coherent arguments and think critically about both their own and other arguments. These are useful skills!

Of course, I am here primarily to entertain myself, but as far as a form of entertainment goes, I think this one is fairly constructive on a personal level.

The second one--implying that we're wasting a great deal of time on the site--is simply not accurate. At most a post like this takes a half hour to write, and I do it once per week. More likely, it takes 15-20 minutes to write, and I spend a lot of that time doing other things. Comments are shorter. At the very most I probably sink something like two hours a week on the blog here, and I have seamlessly integrated it into my workflow. It serves as a nice way to take a short break from reading or writing a project, to clear my mind, et cetera. It's a hobby.

The third one--implying that this is the only thing we ever do--is the most baffling. We all have lives and projects. We all have work or school or whatever to occupy our time and minds. I'm happy with my writing and my other projects. I would not struggle to find something to replace this blog were it to suddenly fall silent. But it's fun and it's reasonably successful, and I see no reason to leave.