Wednesday 13 April 2011

It's Wednesday, must write my blog!

I haven't blogged in a little while, not because I have been too busy or because I couldn't be bothered, (although both of those excuses have applied in the past), but because I have been having a bit of a quandary over the direction I should take with this blog.

I have, over recent weeks become aware of the sheer number of legal blogs there are being published already. Having spent some time trawling through a wide number of these blogs I have realised something.

Mainly, I know nothing about the law. I may be in the third year of a law degree and an enthusiastic student but my knowledge is so basic in comparison to that of many people already out there writing regularly that I feel, in many cases, poorly qualified to comment on the legal issues that are the current hot topics. Having spent some time reading the work of well known and notable bloggers such as Charon QC, Adam Wagner, Michael Scutt, Thelegalbrat, Legaleaglemhm et al. I feel somewhat humbled and think that perhaps rather than adding my own naive two pennyworth to the mix, I might be better off just sitting back and listening to what other, more learned contributors have to say.

I also have no real desire to just add to the general noise on the internet. If I don't feel that what I contributing is worth anything to anyone then I'm not about to simply post a blog considering the colour of the fluff from my navel. I don't want anybody to take the time to read something I have written, only to think "well that was pretty obvious/pointless". Part of my original motivation for starting a blog and becoming more active in the digital world was unashamedly to try and improve my on-line footprint in anticipation of sending out applications for training contracts. Writing a load of trite drivel simply for the sake of saying "I have a blog don't you know" doesn't strike me as a particularly good advert for my skills as a potential lawyer. I know that blogging is considered by many to be an essential part of personal marketing. I just have no real desire to market my own personal brand as a noisy upstart. Perhaps I am being a little over-critical on myself, but I feel it is important to feel comfortable with any image of yourself you decide to broadcast over the public media.

I know that for some people the desire to write and be heard is irresistible and I am not criticising anyone who is prolific with their blogging but I am coming to realise that for me, less is more. I would rather post half a dozen reasonable quality entries over the year than post a load of utter crap every week.

Anyway I intend to keep posting but I will make no apology for that fact that my posts may be sporadic and may not necessarily follow a particular theme or topic. I will post when I feel like saying something, not just because it is a Wednesday.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Dylan, I think yer right, quality over quantity every time. I was v.interested in your earlier post on cloud computing for law firms. I'd never heard of cloud computing but now am hearing that films, music, books etc will all come from clouds in the future. For you lawyers I suppose the logic is you focus on your legal-eagle stuff and let IT specialists do their thing & manage the technology. Look forward to reading yer next blog post whenever you have something for us. Best luck with exams.

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