Happy First Anniversary, My Blog

Large groups of people are inherently smarter than en elite few.

May 2008 was the first time I posted an article in this blog. It has been one year behind. I remember that time I was a little bit doubtful to develop a blog – whether I could consistently update it or not, or whether it was going to be a burden instead of “leisure”.

Since the beginning of 2008 I’ve been quite involved in several discussions. Through meetings, emails, mailing lists, or others’ blogs. My comments in the discussions were often long and thorough – this was what my colleagues told me. Some fellows then encouraged me to generate my own blog to accommodate my sole opinions in writing. One of them even gave me a book about blogging. I started thinking “why not”. Beside those fellows, I was also inspired by my teenage kids. The teenagers in this era are much more familiar with the “cyber space” than parents of my generation. It's interesting to see the kids exploring the cyber space.

First thing to determine was the topics of my blog. I have educational backgrounds in petroleum engineering and development studies. I currently work in an oil company. So that’s why major issues I raise in this blog are pertaining to energy, governance, industries, and sometimes social. Honestly I don’t have expertise in either one of those. I am just a learner. But in my point of view, any discipline of knowledge is not someone’s monopoly. Not expert’s monopoly, not scholar’s monopoly, not intellectual’s monopoly, not even the monopoly of an elite few. Everyone has the right to learn, to understand, to broaden his/her knowledge, to be involved in, and then to provide comments or suggestions. Nowadays there are millions of references that can be accessed through internet. They are all valuable sources of information for those who want to learn.

The very fundamental questions are, why and what I write for. So why I write? I write because I want to write. I never judge myself as someone who has a writing talent and so on and so on, but simply just because I want to write. Certainly, to be able to write I have to allocate my time for it. I don’t play golf or other long duration sports during weekend. After some physical exercises and before I do something (normally hanging out) for my children, I use part of my weekend morning time to open my laptop computer and start knocking my fingers on keyboard. Sometimes if there is an idea in week days, I write after dinner time at home until getting sleepy. If not finished in one day, will be continued on the other days – whenever convenient. If no idea or not in a good mood, I don’t force myself to produce an article. I just put things easy, relax, no burden, no pressure. Like a management jargon: KISS – keep it simple and smile.

What I write for? First, to express my own perspective. Someone’s perspective is often unique, different between one and another. Second, as a “pressure relief”. After busy week days in the office, after coping with terrible Jakarta traffic, after often feeling frustrated with the systems, after often getting bored with routines, then I need a relief. Writing is an effective way to get rid of those things whilst still performing positive attitude.

Third, according to a psychologist (I forget when and where I read this thing), writing can keep your mind “sharpened” and therefore it can slow down the mental aging process. Remember Stephen R. Covey’s seven habits of highly effective people, habit number 7 is “sharpen the saw”. Fourth, to share. I want to share with people regarding what I am learning. Probably there is some sort of benefit that can be extracted from my words.

Fifth, to keep in touch with my friends and people, as well as to get more friends. I am very happy when my hit counter tells me a number of people visiting my blog. From the hit counter’s statistics, around 85% of my visitors are those who directed by search engines into my blog. Meaning, more and more new friends everyday, eventhough we only meet in virtual world.

Blog is a grass root journalism. Everyone can write and discuss anything in blog – with still uphold code of ethics of course – without barrier and without bureaucracy.

In general, based on my one year of experience, writing in blog is sharpening, entertaining, and relieving. So why don’t you develop one of your own — if not yet.

After all…. this is just another blog...

Let me have a freedom to fly without a shadow,
and to sing without an echo.

Last but not least, I thank all those who have visited my blog, either periodically or directed by search engines. Keep blogging, keep learning. Happy anniversary, my blog. Cheers…