2497 and counting

Do you think you will still be working, in some capacity, in 10 years? What will you have learned during that decade? Will you remember much of it? Will you have access to reminders and artifacts that could jog your memory? Perhaps you need an outboard brain.

Yesterday marked 10 years of blogging here at jarche.com. This is post # 2,497. That’s a lot of words, concepts, and half-baked ideas. For example, I have the flow (148 posts to date) of my thoughts on personal knowledge management since my first post in 2004. The Seek > Sense > Share framework emerged in 2010. I have also developed ideas around the knowledge-sharing paradox; how our work structures drive sociopathic behaviours; and management in networks. These thoughts continue to evolve and provide the raw material for more refined posts like how to help the network make better decisions, or longer whitepapers for my clients.

Everyone talks about change today, and how people will have many careers and vocations through their working lives. Company lifespans are decreasing and losing your job is becoming a rather common, but unfortunate, occurrence. Having a blog, a public presence to share ideas, enables you to grow a professional network beyond your organization’s walls. It can provide useful insights while you have a job, and connect you to people who can help you if you need to look for new work. Given the usefulness of blogs, it’s amazing that many professionals still cannot be bothered with them.

My business would not exist without my blog. Period.

Note that I live in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada; population 5,000. I am 1,000 km away from the closest internationally recognized city (Boston or Montreal). Even our timezone is unknown to many people. Without my blog, nobody would ever have heard of me. My speaking engagements are an indication of the reach my blog has provided. Finally, thanks to Automattic for making WordPress, which I adopted in 2006, and it made my online life much simpler.