I am not a blogger. I am a writer. What have I written? Well, mostly a lot of to-do lists, but I’ve also written hundreds of papers, edited articles and books, and I obsess over crafting the right message in every email and presentation in my corporate life. I do not blog.

Why not? Because, quite frankly, blogging is the worst. Most bloggers are little more than irritating windbags with delusions of writing grandeur. Blogs clog the Internet with bravado and shitty, well-dressed opinions wrapped in nice themes and artfully chosen fonts to lend the author some paper-thin credibility. Blogs are the perfect platform from which to shout one’s point of view, yet blogs have an incredibly low barrier to entry. As a consumer, this can be frustrating. Who are the experts? Where are the crackerjack geniuses and maverick thought leaders, and how can I tell them apart from apes at a typewriter?

And there’s the rub. You can’t. As one of those apes at a typewriter, given enough practice, persistence, and luck, I too could produce brilliance. Writing is the product of practice. Having something to say is the product of both experience and perspective. The artful combination of these three elements is the unicorn.

And here we are, one more ape at a typewriter, having written a blog post, and thus becoming a blogger.

Blogging is the worst.