THANKS GUIMKIE & ABOUT THIS BLOG

My brother-in-law has tried to tell me I need to publish a post that flows into the RSS feed about why this blog exists, rather than park my explanation discreetly in the About/Q&A link you can only find at the bottom of the main pages. He says it will help Google’s search engines (Googlebots) understand my content better, which will make it easier for people to find my site. My brother-in-law is usually right (sigh), but it typically takes me a few days to concede his rightness, so here is the introduction to this blog, a couple weeks late.

I have put off this task primarily because it seemed, well, boring to write, but tonight I found a reason. After five hours of poring over the tutorials, tips, and hours of work that go into what is guimkie.com, I was reminded of why I started this blog: people are basically pretty cool. The two guys at Guimkie have spent hours putting together information that I can’t even get from my beloved Apple about their software. Where there is a gap in that software’s performance, as iWeb often has, Guimkie writes the code and posts the fixes for free. I can’t even wrap my brain around the level of expertise it takes to do this stuff, but I can appreciate the spirit in which it is done.

Those two attributes – generosity and real expertise in a subject – are part of the inspiration for this blog. Over the years, I developed two serious pet peeves: the first, people who think the world is a terrible, awful place and that Westerners, especially Americans, are terrible, awful people. I think that the world, as a whole, is doing a lot better on the whole Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs scale than it was even 20 years ago. At least, that’s what all the research, data, and social indicators suggest. I also think that while Americans have some attributes that could use improving, on the whole, we are pretty amazing people, especially when compared to other places and peoples. Yes, compared. I compare. I spent the past eight years of my adult life in the developing world, contracting a new intestinal parasite every few months. I compare.

The second pet peeve: people who think that because they saw something on the news for 10 minutes or read one article in Newsweek, they know everything there is to say (usually in the negative) about a subject. There is something to be said for being a generalist (I am one), and it is important to be aware of things, even if one doesn’t know them in depth. But I also think it is important to recognize and acknowledge that it takes a long time to really know a topic, and the more you learn of something, the more you realize nothing is black and white. It also takes a lot more energy and effort to be intellectually positive, creative, and generous, than negative, self-righteous, and selfish.

So this blog is my answer to years of biting my tongue, smiling politely, and tactfully changing the subject. It is focused on complex subjects that take a long time to study and master. Sometimes I post tidbits about those subjects, sometimes I recount a personal experience, other times I find something long and involved and put it on there too. This blog reflects the idea that humor is important, that innovation is important, and that a solid understanding of history – of context – is important.

So there you go: the philosophical underpinnings of my blog. Crawl away Googlebots, and load me into the system so all the other grouchy optimists out there can find YTP and feel at home.