Anything is Nothing
You can do anything you want… but can you do everything?
19 months, 22 posts. Forget about the smart, this looks really casual. No one should believe that this endeavour came with any proper planning. Yet the truth is, before starting this blog, I spent over a month pondering what I could do. In fact, I believe I’ve spent more time in total thinking about this platform than writing on it. And I’m a slow writer.
Who is my audience? Singaporeans first (no relation to political party).
What are the topics I can cover? I came up with an initial list of 17.
What are the levels of analysis? Individual, Societal, National.
What are my goals? Promote, Analyze, Share.
What are my source materials? Books, Newspapers, Films, Statistics, Personal Observations.
It goes on into many more details. The thing is, possibilities are not probabilities. Knowing what is theoretically possible does not make it practically feasible. In other words, you cannot do everything. The result thus far is an experimental jumble of whim-induced and sometimes yawn-inducing posts of little importance. There are times – aplenty – when I looked back on a post and thought: The writing itself is not terrible, yet too many words are wasted on too little significance.
In my prolonged pursuit of a “blueprint” to make this blog conceptually worthwhile, I have repeatedly neglected one key consideration: Passion. Admittedly, this blog is built on borrowed passion – borrowed from a future self more attuned to the affairs of Singapore. This means I need to make strategic decisions to coax the good posts out, to keep inching towards the practical insight I feel capable of someday.
What do I like to write? What am I (relatively) good at? And finally, How much time can I give?
No longer can I condone the superficial planning behind this project. No longer shall I ramble about things worth no more than a passing mention. No longer will I emulate the lengths of a journalist or a Gen Y sociopolitical blogger.
You cannot do anything unless you know what it is and really want to. I’m hardly there yet. But for a start, I’m trimming some of the excesses.
Let’s hope I arrive at something.
