The politics of blogging

Well here it is, my first blog post.  Anyone could argue that I’m late to the game, but I hope it’s a case of better late than never.  I’ve always thought of myself as a doer not a talker (or writer), but in this era of “Web 2.0” I think it’s time for me to expand my online presence.  I also want to provide a new and accessible way for people to figure out (or attempt to figure out) how I think and what my values are.  Who knows, maybe writing a blog is a way for me to figure out what makes me tick.  I do have values that I consider to be unique – or so you’d think.  Maybe this blog will help us all see if anyone else shares my point of view.

A number of people have told me that I’m a good writer.  I’ve appreciated that feedback, but there’s been a nasty little secret behind almost everything I’ve written: I’m a slow writer.  Painfully slow.  (Management experts would use the term inefficient.)  I can take hours to write a single paragraph.  I struggle with the challenge of being brief while saying everything I want to say.  My penchant for grammatical correctness has led to paragraphs that are twice as long as they should be.  Let’s see if this blog helps me improve my speed and conciseness.

I intend to use this blog to express my opinions on a variety of subjects – management, business, marketing, customer service, relationships, photography, filmmaking (the latter two topics are personal interests) – maybe even politics.  I will try to identify and categorize my posts appropriately.

I generally avoid talking about politics in my personal conversations for three reasons: (1) I perceive that many people use politics to act out their unresolved emotional issues – and I don’t want to get caught in that vortex; (2) I’m remarkably centrist about many political issues, which makes a lot of polarized people uncomfortable; and (3) I feel largely disconnected from most political issues.  I might be entitled to my opinion and my vote, but so are many millions of other people in the U.S.  Historically, I just haven’t felt like my opinions were going to have an impact.  Let’s see if this blog changes my defeatist view.

Another reason it might be time for me to blog is that I’m finally getting experienced enough (read: old enough) to see repeating patterns and trends in human behavior – even though the behavior may seem stupid, brilliant, evil, angelic, competent or incompetent.  My training in psychology has taught me that there’s always a reason for human behavior, even though many human acts leave people asking “how could this happen?”  So maybe I do have something to add to the conversation.

I expect my blog posts will reveal a number of things about me and my background. If you want to learn more about me in the meantime, I recommend taking a look at my personal web site at www.bobcuckler.com or my LinkedIn profile at www.LinkedIn.com/in/bobcuckler.

Thanks in advance for reading my blog.  I hope my posts will be worthy of your time.

Bob Cuckler

June 2013