Practice makes perfect - or so the saying goes. Perhaps more precisely: 'deliberate practice' makes perfect. A good book I recently read ("Talent is Overrated" by Geoff Colvin) makes the point that getting good at anything, including writing, requires practice (no duh!), but also deliberate and repeated attempts to challenge your abilities. Research shows that the most effective people tend to chose moderately challenging tasks - otherwise one tends to get either non-improvement (by choosing easy tasks) or frustration (by choosing hard tasks).
My entry into the blog space was prompted by the inevitable challenges of summing the discipline to write. This is, after all, an important part of my job as a lecturer (or Professor, as we ex-pat Americans like to say). I've had some really good productivity lately... but it could always be better! I thought a blog might be a good opportunity to get some more 'practice' in writing. By using a loose style, and not being too critical of my logic, grammar and spelling I hope to 'let loose the muse' and gain some valuable practice time.
It should also be interesting to see if this becomes a conversation with myself, or whether others might actually be interested to read what I'm writing about. Self-publishing is all the rage, so I'd imagine my friends and relatives might at least give it a look. The plan is to write about general "intellectual" topics that interest me (e.g., reflections on books I'm reading), or 'what' is happening in my lab. If nothing else, this should be a good space to document the evolution (or perhaps de-evolution) of my thoughts over time.
