Why do I blog?

Time to go all philosophical on you with that eternal question: what's the point in blogging?

I won't pretend to speak for anyone other than myself. The motives of other bloggers I'm sure are as diverse as the blogs themselves. I won't bother trying to guess what they are.

Let's get the kick rolling with what I'm not attempting.

To become a professional beer writer. There's no money in it. Not unless you're prepared to invest the whole of your energy into the attempt. In any case, why should I? My day job pays better than beer writing by several motorways. And I've enough free time after work to write pretty much as much as I want.

To be a journalist. Doesn't interest me at all. That's why I avoid all that news stuff. There's no satisfaction for me in recycling the same press releases and a few hundred others.


To make myself a brand. I'm a man. A free man, not a brand.

To make money. My beer activities cost me money. Quite a bit, if I start adding it up. How much do you reckon 500 books cost?


Now let's kick the roll in the opposite direction. Why do I blog?

Alan told me to. That's really why I started. Alan McCleod wrote "You should start a blog, Ron." So that's what I did. I'm very easily influenced.

To keep track of my material. I've unearthed so much stuff, it's hard to keep in order. The blog is the perfect place to store it.

I enjoy writing. Pretty simple, really. More of an addiction than a hobby. Why else would a person as profoundly lazy as me writes so effing much?

Feedback. Running my ideas past others. Asking questions about the (many) technical details I don't understand.

Memories. My memory of events is notoriously crap. Writing up my travels saves me the bother of trying to remember them. And gives me something to blackmail the kids with in later life.

That's enough navel-gazing for another year or two. Time to return to numbers, charts, obscure texts and low-grade humour.