Good morning, Duck Soup readers. I'd like to share a small milestone with you. Today we surpassed 250,000 page views after nearly three years of being in existence. A quarter-of-a-million page views! I know, probably about what the Huffington Post or The Atlantic gets in 10 minutes, but still, a very gratifyng and humbling metric for this little corner of the internet.
Clive Thompson, in his recent book Smarter Than You Think talks about the 'audience effect' and why blogging can be so satisfying. He makes the observation that:
"the cognitive shift in going from an audience of zero (talking to yourself) to an audience of 10 (a few friends or random strangers checking out your online post) is so big that it’s actually huger than going from 10 people to a million."I'd agree with that completely. The first time this blog got a visit I was stunned. Then there were a few more, and a few more, and all of a sudden Duck Soup had an audience! But delight quickly turned to horror as the realization sank in that, if people were going to return, there had to be something worth returning for. That responsibility is really the engine that's kept this thing going... that and just the pure pleasure of sharing (really interesting things!). Fortunately, the horror stage didn't last long, and I now consider Duck Soup a companion, an outlet, a small creative diversion that I hope adds something to someone's life, but beyond that don't have any pretentions about its relevance to anyone but myself. Still. This milestone makes me smile a little.
More recently, Roger Angell compared blogging to "a bit like making a paper airplane and then watching it take wing below your window." I'd agree with that, too. Who cares where it goes? It's just the fun of making it and sending it sailing that counts.
Thank you all.
markk
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