Expand ideas on your own

This personal blog emerged out of several lingering feelings that I have had for quite a while. One of those is that I wasn't happy with the ideas I had for producing content, mostly from a business perspective, but also for spaces that tended a bit more personal like efforts I was making on Twitter. For some reason it always seemed like a struggle to produce ideas for compelling content.

I think the reason for this is that I didn't have much of a process when it came to ideation. It was basically, block out a time where I need to generate either lots of content for Tweets or lots of blog post ideas. Often, the inspiration for these would come from looking at other content that was similar to what I was trying to write. I'm now realizing that issue with this approach is that I was not giving myself enough time to develop unique ideas on my own.

I was trying to jump straight from 0 to finished content in the form of polished thoughts with references, links, etc. without giving myself time to actually think freely through these ideas and develop them. As a result, my ideas were heavily influenced both by others who I was seeking to emulate as well as by my mood or initial reaction in the day I was producing that content.

Now, I see this personal blog as a key part of my ideation process. I am starting to capture my ideas better, and from those simple notes, I can gradually expand on ideas that feel important through my daily writing habit here. Then gradually as those thoughts start to accumulate, I can pull together similar threads to create longer form content or chop ideas into smaller pieces for short-form, social media content. And in the end, it's ok if I'm saying something that is similar to someone else on this blog, not everything needs to be a critique or a hot-take. Rather, this space can be what I am thinking about in the moment which may or may not eventually form into a unique viewpoint. That's something I didn't give myself the time and space to do before, but I am enjoying now.