Those who speak do not know…
I have been blogging on and off since May 2002.
I just found my first post at http://web.archive.org/web/20030529100121/www.douglasp.com/2002/05/05.html.
I have always struggle with how open to blog about things in the company and things in my own life.
These days, it is not just blogging, but Twitter, FriendFeed, etc., but the issue is the same.
I will admit that blogging/micro-blogging is a powerful way to communicate with the broader community, but I wonder about being “too accessible”.
I think a lot about the lessons of Lao Tzu (the title of this post) and Machiavelli (particularly chapter 12 of The Prince) in this regard.
As I think through this, I likely going to take one of my semi-frequent pauses from blogging/micro-blogging…
While I agree that you can share too much of yourself with social networks, I encourage you to continue to take another advice of Lao Tzu and to share again soon:
The sage does not hoard. The more he helps others, the more he benefits himself, The more he gives to others, the more he gets himself. The Way of Heaven does one good but never does one harm. The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.
Erik Wynne Stepp
28 May 09 at 22:36
I believe it was Robespierre or Talleyrand or one of the other French diplomats (and later found to be a spy) who had an interesting quote about this. I cannot find the reference now, but it was something like “it is always good to have a stockpile of true and verifiable personal debaucheries in your past, because when you carefully trust your ’secrets’ to a confidant, or publicly confess to some past sin, people will appreciate the faith you place in them and will trust you in return — and then they won’t ever suspect you about the *really* secret stuff”.
I guess in America, that’s called being a Senator.
Joshua Allen
2 Jun 09 at 04:29