What's With the No New Posts, eh?
I'm not sure why I haven't been posting much - I've got a few reasons floating around.
1. Burnout. Maybe... At least part of my lack of posting has been a feeling that most of what I've been writing shows a good bit of contempt for defendants - my clients. I don't consciously feel contempt. Sadness, yes, but not contempt. One of my coping mechanisms is the black humor that most of us keep to ourselves - but my writing has seemed to focus on that aspect, and not on the others, so I want to de-emphasize that. Other than being more tired than usual of my clients doing stupid things, I don't feel any other symptoms of burnout. I'm at the jail more, seeing my clients more, I'm trying more cases, I'm having more fun doing it, my understanding of the spiritual aspects of my calling is deepening, I'm balancing work and family better, etc.
2. The new has worn off. My posting has always run in fits and starts, but committing to posting has started to feel like...work. So, maybe so. But that in and of itself isn't really reason to not post, but it does feed into the next reason:
3. What have I got to offer? Somebody else usually picks up the new stuff before me, posts more intelligently and insightfully, has better stories and tells better stories - what can I offer that no-one else does, or at least offer something as good as someone else? fark.com for lawyers, paraphilia phridays and debunking meth recipes? I don't think so.
4. Shades of grey /100% solution. Once I do start writing on something non-fluffy, it turns into mush because I can see the other side's argument and in my mind concede that reasonable minds can differ. The writing tends to lose direction and strength. Also, the nigh-untappable knowledge available on the internet makes it very hard to write fully on a subject without it ballooning - I have a tendency to digress because the digression is as interesting or more interesting than the primary discussion, and the internet both facilitates and multiplies that tendency. I also want to have the whole, correct answer based on all the data - the 100% solution. However, living in the real world requires us to think and act on less than 100% information; otherwise we'll always be gathering information, rather than acting on it.
5. A day late, a dollar short. By the time a I have something useful to post about something, it's old news. That's partly a function of my tendency to want the 100% solution and partly my laziness. In my head, I've got a great article on the development of 'humane' ways to execute people that was perfectly illustrated by the Iraqi's popping off the head of Saddam Hussein's half-brother two months ago.
The answer is probably all of them. But hey, it's a post.
Jack
1. Burnout. Maybe... At least part of my lack of posting has been a feeling that most of what I've been writing shows a good bit of contempt for defendants - my clients. I don't consciously feel contempt. Sadness, yes, but not contempt. One of my coping mechanisms is the black humor that most of us keep to ourselves - but my writing has seemed to focus on that aspect, and not on the others, so I want to de-emphasize that. Other than being more tired than usual of my clients doing stupid things, I don't feel any other symptoms of burnout. I'm at the jail more, seeing my clients more, I'm trying more cases, I'm having more fun doing it, my understanding of the spiritual aspects of my calling is deepening, I'm balancing work and family better, etc.
2. The new has worn off. My posting has always run in fits and starts, but committing to posting has started to feel like...work. So, maybe so. But that in and of itself isn't really reason to not post, but it does feed into the next reason:
3. What have I got to offer? Somebody else usually picks up the new stuff before me, posts more intelligently and insightfully, has better stories and tells better stories - what can I offer that no-one else does, or at least offer something as good as someone else? fark.com for lawyers, paraphilia phridays and debunking meth recipes? I don't think so.
4. Shades of grey /100% solution. Once I do start writing on something non-fluffy, it turns into mush because I can see the other side's argument and in my mind concede that reasonable minds can differ. The writing tends to lose direction and strength. Also, the nigh-untappable knowledge available on the internet makes it very hard to write fully on a subject without it ballooning - I have a tendency to digress because the digression is as interesting or more interesting than the primary discussion, and the internet both facilitates and multiplies that tendency. I also want to have the whole, correct answer based on all the data - the 100% solution. However, living in the real world requires us to think and act on less than 100% information; otherwise we'll always be gathering information, rather than acting on it.
5. A day late, a dollar short. By the time a I have something useful to post about something, it's old news. That's partly a function of my tendency to want the 100% solution and partly my laziness. In my head, I've got a great article on the development of 'humane' ways to execute people that was perfectly illustrated by the Iraqi's popping off the head of Saddam Hussein's half-brother two months ago.
The answer is probably all of them. But hey, it's a post.
Jack
posted by Gideon's Guardians at Thursday, March 22, 2007
1 Comments:
Really effective data, thank you for the article.
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