This is my 10th posting. Happy 10th posting!
It's been quite the journey. I have certainly gotten an education about blogging, blogs.sun.com and the people who blog.
Granted, I've only had a limited amount of time to dedicate to this activity, so I am still well down the slope of the lazy S learning curve on my way to expertise.
Worse, my learning style is one that precludes me from moving up the S curve at an accelerated past...I move real slow, initially, as I try to formulate theorems and formulae in my head about how things work. I am a person who learns things from "First Principles". Or, more colloquially, I am a physics guy. I need to understand the lego blocks, and how they go together, before I build anything.
I was the quiet kid in the corner staring at the components, catching shit for not paying attention to the clock and getting my assignments done on time.
/therapy off --- Sorry about that. I'll keep the "Being John Malkovich" to a minimum.
There are a couple other learning styles - most things are broken into 2x2 matrix models to simplify the 6 Billion individuals on this planet. Experiential learning is the theory that I used to understand this theory.
(Recursive, isn't it? but there is an end state, so the recursion ends...or rather the madness ends... and I come back to live among the sane, acting somewhat normal.... ) :)
Anyways, there are 4 learning styles (according to Kolb), which are feeling, watching, thinking and doing.
These are not exclusive, but rather indicators of preferred approaches.
My preferred approach, then, is thinking. It used to be my exclusive approach. Which meant as a young man, I was a know-it-all, and interesting only to other know-it-alls from a conversational standpoint.
It's not a well-respected learning style - "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?"
Well, the answer is I am a thinker, not a do-er. I've no use for money... I haven't thought about what to do with it yet :)
There is truth in jest, and seriously, I haven't quite figured out how to NOT have money own me... so I don't apply myself in earning great gobs of it. Yet. Of course, there is only so much time on this planet, so yet may simply turn into never. oh well.
/Self-Indulgent_Rationalizations off - Sorry about that... I'll try to get this brain of mine to behave.
As I am now older and wiser, (and slower, and more hard of hearing and less tolerant of other people's opinion provided on an unsolicited basis, etc.etc,...) I now try to employ the other learning styles as well.
"Just do it." Which got me started on my 1st blog posting.
Watching - Which is the source of my 3rd blog posting.
Feeling - Which is the source of my 5th blog posting.
But most of my blog postings are going to be me thinking through --whatever-- and at times, I'll blog about what I am learning through thinking.
I am still thinking about the fundamentals of blogging, the tools that people employ when they blog, the people who read the blogs and what they are hoping to gain..what is going to keep them coming back, and what should be done with blogs professionally.
Professionally? As a sales person, I need to sell myself first. At that point, I become a juggernaut. How? At handling objections, intelligently.
Most people resist a sales person, intuitively, and for good reasons, which I will not go into right now.
Rarely does a consumer collaborate with a sales person. A consumer typically conflicts with a sales person in a tit for tat game of objections and counter arguments.
A sales person typically gets seven "No!"'s before a breakthrough "Eureka!" moment where the tide turns and the individual aligns with the sales person in a common action against the problem and jointly comes up with a solution.
Mind you, Blogs aren't a solution in search of a problem, but when a problem -- or rather, an opportunity to solve a specific problem -- arises, blogs may be an excellent solution.
Which problems/opportunities?
Right now, I am still trying to figure that out :)
BTW, if you want to know your own learning style, you can google 'Learning Style Inventory'. I spent a few minutes hunting.. When I get more time, I'll seek again and repost. There is one from a dentistry school in the UK, which I went through, but it was not a great implementation...so I won't recommend it.
There is a commercial product available, (again, google if you want the reference, I don't want to be appear to be a shill for this product) which is when I was introduced to the LSI concept, and the value in the findings from the test is in the discussion of when, where, and how to use 'Learning Styles'. Best done is groups, I would say. Or therapy. (Hey, how did that sneak in there? I thought I turned it off...)
Lastly, if you look it up on wikipedia, the current or prevailing wisdom is that it is all bunk...
Hmmm.... maybe I need to rethink this... I wonder whether I should post this blog, given that I don't have it fully figured out... hmmm....
/Incoherent_ramblings off - Oh no! I am rebooting... yikes!