The Steussy Ranch

(This entry originally published at blog.steussy.com 5-15-2007)

When I first heard about blogging, I assumed that it was a fad rather like streaking in the ’70’s. After all, who in their right mind wants to bare themselves to the public? Clearly, this was simply a fad which would soon fade.

I’ve now changed my mind and am diving in. What prompted the change? There are two quotes, both of which struck me to the core with their inherent truth:

Scott McNeally, CEO of Sun Microsystems, 1999: “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.”

Charles Stross, Science Fiction author, 2007: “Our concept of privacy relies on the fact that it’s hard to discover information about other people. … But we’re already seeing some interesting tendencies in the area of attitudes to privacy on the internet among young people, under about 25; if they’ve grown up with the internet they have no expectation of being able to conceal information about themselves. They seem to work on the assumption that anything that is known about them will turn up on the net sooner or later, at which point it is trivially searchable.”

If these are both true, and I have no doubt that they are, then it only makes sense that I should be part of this conversation as soon as possible. What will I add? Unique insights, quirky links, opinions … a big part of me is exploring. At a younger age, this meant plane tickets, new languages and years away from home. Exploring can (and does) still mean these things, but my explorations over the last two or three years have taken place online.

This blog is a logical extension of that exploration.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 18th, 2007 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Personal History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.