The Blog as Brain Repository...

So, Tom, a Blog reader sends me a note:

You seem a general font of wisdom. I just withdrew an offer on a house because during inspection I found that under the ugly aluminum siding was even uglier asbestos shingles. It made me feel glad that I had a good engineer. But it also made me realize that I'm a total tyro when it comes to this whole house buying thing. It occurred to me that you might know where to go to learn up myself good on this.

I do appreciate the ego boost, Tom, thanks. I wrote back:

Best bet is to search blog archives around oct/nov/dec 2004

For example… http://jer979.blogspot.com/2004/12/on-preparation.html

Start there and see what you find…

And that's when it dawned on me...pretty much what I know, have learned, or am thinking about is now in a public repository for my friends to search. You want to know what I think about Windows Vista? Middle East politics? a vacation in Colorado?

Search the blog (it's built in)

Where e-mail may be a private repository, the Blog is the public library of my brain.

There are certain things where people may come to me or respect my opinion. There are others where you go to someone else. Everyone has something unique to contribute. Now, instead of pinging you with a question via email (and taking up your time), I search your blog, see what you've written and start from there.

It's a pretty powerful concept...your brain online...and one I used today myself.

I've started to listen to a few podcasts, but I didn't really know how to find a good directory of them or what to do.

So, I went to the blog of one person I know, sort of...I read his blog. Fred Wilson is a VC in New York and I highly respect his opinion on this type of topic. I did a search of his blog, found my answer in a post he wrote a while back, and I was off and running (btw...found a new service www.podzinger.com that lets you search for keywords within a podcast).

Instead of a Google search where I have no context for trusting a website, I now have Fred's stamp of approval, and you have mine. This adds a whole new layer to finding information online. It's about finding information based on the opinions of those you respect...within their areas of expertise.