I'm a reader. As a reader, it's just flat out great. You should read it. It's interesting and informative. That's a no-brainer.
As a writer, what interests me is the breadth of the work. I feel like he's able to write about a lot of different things and they always tie back thematically to his main focus which I will sum up like this: creativity in the workplace.
He might not sum it up that way, but I will. Because that's what I think ties it all together.
He's not writing for artists living off the grid. He's not writing for people who have no interest in creativity or change. It's pretty clear and gives him breadth on topics ranging from the psychological, to the cultural, to the career-related.
Still, how does he do it?
I'm going to write some some of my own blog posts dissecting a couple of his recent posts to figure it out. I'm interested and I think I can figure it out.
Curiosity is a valuable skill. It's important to be curious about how things work, what others are like, and how other people solve problems.
Curiosity is indispensable and required in the 21st century - it gets you excited about new projects, and it also keeps you going when things get difficult.
Sometimes it's scary to learn something new. But once I've pushed through the fear I'm always glad I did.
Find a way to cultivate your curiosity: take a class that interests you, read a book on a difficult topic, talk to someone you wouldn't normally talk to.
If you come across someone who isn't curious or doesn't want to learn something new you should ask why and be curious about that. Maybe you can help. We all have times where we struggle with change.
I've been working on this blog for the last year and I'm changing my tag line. The old tag line was:
Technology, Work, Writing
That was fine. It covers a lot of ground and since the blog was largely about work and my tech-related interests it worked.
The new line is:
Technology, Leadership, Influence
This will be my new focus for the coming year. It's a bit more specific and it feels right for this blog.
Leadership is really what my work is about, outside of technology.
Influence is the purpose of writing. You can, and I often do, write for autotelic reasons, but that is not what this is about.
I hope that people read this and it has some impact. I like that more than just writing. I'll probably continue to write about writing, but with more on a focus on how to make an impression.
Happy early 2017. It should be an interesting year.
Jonathan Fries on .