Why you should read my blog (please)

Welcome to my new blog — new in the sense that I’m about to start blogging for the first time and I’m sort of learning about it and what I want to blog about as I go along.

So, what can you expect? That’s a really good question. People always say “write what you know” but that seems spectacularly unambitious and uninteresting to me. I’m going to write about what I want to write about — it could be anything.

In fact I’m approaching this in an entirely different way to most bloggers (or rather, most bloggers of the blogs I read). I have no pre-defined agenda. I have no pre-defined areas of interest: the universe and all that it contains fascinate me. Anything goes. So I will use this blog to share with you what I find interesting, funny, despicable, brilliant — or just add my two-pence to the ongoing debates of the day. True, there are some things I’m pretty passionate about and I think I’ve come to some good conclusions about; and I’m sure that the scope of this project will inevitably narrow through iterative improvement and refinement and as my particular interests become apparent. But in keeping with my aim of becoming a polymath, I want to keep this as broad as possible. And I want you all to provide me as much feedback as you want — bring it on! Comment, flame, whatever. The more the better.

Why?

This blog is a tool for me to understand a bit more about myself — what I’m interested in, what I have good ideas about and so on. I’m not entirely sure yet. I’ve not had a chance to really think about it; to sit down and review my thoughts as they evolve, refine, and finally solidify into an opinion on so many things — things that I want to know about. And to do with any sort of intellectual honesty requires debate, argument, passion; a blank slate to go and explore any idea and try to think new thoughts (like changing my mind!). This blog is part of my wider quest for knowledge and self-knowledge — and helping me to become a polymath.

Sitting here in the weak winter sunshine, I’m enthused and excited by the limitless potential of this blog. I just hope I can live up to it! I have so many things I want to talk about — things that I hope you want to talk about too. I want to talk about the things that impact me, things I know and I don’t know, and things that I have no idea about and want to learn about. But mainly I want to learn more about everything.

So, please — read my blog!