Bulldozer00's Blog

Since I really enjoyed reading Scott Rosenberg’s “Dreaming In Code“, I grokked his other books. Lo and behold, I discovered that Scott also penned “Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters“. Ten seconds and $9.99 later, I was immersed in the kindle version. Not very far into the book, Scott wrote something that touched a nerve:

Writers who tell stories about themselves, their families, and friends always walk a tightrope: you fall off one side if you stop telling the truth; you fall off the other if you hurt people you care about, or use them as fodder for your career. Dishonesty to the left, selfishness to the right.

Except for occasional references to my dog Morrie, I don’t write about my family at all. I have, however, written extensively about my former and current co-workers and managers in an abstract sense.

When you write about your personal experiences working in a corporation, unless you’re a top executive whose livelihood requires that you project of an image of infallibility, you’re likely to write about the dysfunctional, Dilbertonian, situations you you constantly find yourself in.

I don’t know how many of my working mates peruse this blog, but I’m sure some of them do from time to time. If you’re one of those perusers and you suddenly find a veiled reference to yourself in one of my rants, then I’m sorry – and remember that my writing is simply an interpretation of events and behaviors, not necessarily a statement of objective fact.

When it comes to falling off Mr. Rosenberg’s metaphorical tightrope, I tend to fall off on the side of selfishness.