Specialization is for Insects
Does the quote "specialization is for insects" apply to something like blogging? Before I delve into the answer to that question, let me give you some background.
Specialization is for insects.
As I was explaining to my 22-year old son about being able to do more than just one thing at one time and being able to do all of them well, I used a familiar quote: "Specialization is for insects." A while later, I became interested in knowing where I'd heard or read it before. I remembered it as a tagline at One Mans Blog, but I knew it originally came from somewhere else. After I "googled it", I found that it came from a book, "Time Enough For Love" by Robert A. Heinlein. A book that I've never read. Here's the full quote:
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
Does this apply to blogging?
Insects specialize. Observe how ants and various other bugs live and operate. They do the same things over and over again in the same way. They may move from location to location, but the behavior remains consistent.
I've yet to read a blog, even a so-called "niche" blog, where the author(s) do the same things over and over again. On second thought, yes I have. Video blogs, picture blogs and specific blogs like those all continue to operate in the same manner. That's because they have a singular purpose. They're not the kind of blogs I'm talking about. I'm talking about the blogs where the main content is text.
This blog isn't written by an insect.
As much as I would like to be able to focus on one particular topic all the time, I find it incredibly boring. There are blogs that specialize in blogging about blogging, making money online, technology, Internet marketing and a whole slew of other topics. Do you want to know something? I can't read any one of them every single day. They bore me to tears.
There's nothing wrong in being a blog specialist. We need those kinds of blogs as information storehouses. We also need blogs that don't specialize on any one topic. They're the blogs that make the rest of them bearable. I have other blogs that focus on specialty topics, but even those blogs vary in content.
So tell me, are you an insect?
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As blogs will serve as this century's diaries and memoirs, non-specialisation is only a good thing. It's good to have a place where one can focus on one thing (like your review blog) we shouldn't have to be single minded. We're paying for the domain name and hosting (in many cases) so we should be able to write about whatever we want, whenever we want.
I haven't really seen a one-topic blog that sticks to the topic either – most have a "break day" where they talk about whatever they want to.
Aren't insects meant to be squashed?
I'm with you RT, I can't read a niche blog every day, it's always the same. The same ideas, the same sermons, day after day? Boring. Variety is the spice of life.
What I write is dictated by mood and desire. A little bit of this and that keeps things from getting stale.
Great thoughts. Thanks for putting them here for the wayback machine to archive. You've read my blog, so you know the answer.
I read that book as a teen. It was a really good book, as all Heinlein books are (but The Door Into Summer is my favorite by a lot).
This blog is noarchive.
Focusing on the same topic is boring, especially to your readers.So I think mixing up some topics is quiet interesting.
If I might say so, I think even the most varied of us tend to stick to our strengths over a period of time.
But definitely varying the topics, especially if we blog frequently, help in keeping us fresh and different.
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I have trouble reading any blog every day (although I read almost every post in person on yours RT). I have a few humour type blogs I like to read. And non of them have a specific topic.
As far as specialization goes, I am currently trying to specialize myself into about 100 different niches. So really, that is the opposite of specializing, isn't it?
The only specializing I am trying to do is SEO. And as far as I can tell, SEO changes over time, so doing the same thing over and over wouldn't work there.
I have always wondered how some people get a simple job and then stay there for 20 + years. Now that's specializing!
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