What is The Daily Thought (TDT)?

The Daily Thought was a successful experiment I ran in 2010 to see if I could generate one blog post every day. You can see them all in my 2010 post archive.

What was I trying to accomplish?

My expectations for the daily thoughts included:

  • I will not be regurgitating breaking news stories.
  • I will not be posting regular trackbacks and commentary on other blog articles.
  • I will keep entries to as short a length as possible while still providing context and value for myself and others.
  • I will aim to avoid purely derivative ideas, and will aim to pump a modicum of original thought back into the crowded blogosphere.
  • I will aim to keep thoughts focused on general topics that are of value to any intelligent reader.

Why in 2010?

So why after having a generally healthy online presence for over a decade, and being highly involved with the web world, did I choose 2010 to finally blog? There isn’t any one particularly compelling reason, but maybe a combination of three:

  • I fundamentally believe in the principle that we learn something new every day. I want to remind myself that I am still learning and exploring daily, and this blog is an incentive for me.
  • I find myself pondering a lot of things I expect will be valuable later in my life. Indeed, I find myself repeating my thoughts frequently enough that they might as well be persistent. This blog can capture them. Even if no one else reads this blog, I know it will prove valuable to me.
  • The more experienced I get, the more I find people want to actually listen to what I have to say. If that’s really the case, then let them listen. I hope this blog proves valuable for self-promotion, thought-provoking for others, and generally increases my sense of participation in a broader online community.
  • The third reason has to some extent been relevant for years, but alone wasn’t enough to motivate me to blog. The first two more personal reasons made my decision easy, and if the exercise ceases to be personally motivating, rest assured it will end.

What Happened?

For a post-mortem on the experiment, see the final post from Dec. 31, 2010.