Ideas

Buddy Geoff threw out an Edward de Bono quote recently that I hadn’t heard for a while.

“It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong than to be always right by having no ideas at all.”

I’m thinking that this should be the mantra for all bloggers as we personally craft our comments and thinkings, looking for and to changing whatever part of the human condition that we can.

I think about what blogging has done for me, personally.  By trying my best to blog regularly, it keeps me thinking and wondering about this and that.  As a teacher, I’ve always tried all kinds of things, discarding many along the way as too abstract or just not feasible.

Last night, for example, I took my camera for a walk looking for inspiration for content for some professional development activities that I’ll be leading next week.  I don’t want to go the safe route and use the works or content of others.  There’s lots of that available online.  What inspires me is to create completely from scratch and then somehow explain to others what I did.

For the most part, it seems to be successful with teachers in our district.  I could talk about the value of wikis or blogs or developing a PLN.  That’s the easy part.  But, to create and experiment with them myself forces me to learn and understand at a deeper level.  The problem with putting de Bono’s quote into practice is the reality that the ideas that turn out “wrong” or “impractical” have consumed some time and effort in the experimentation.  I just need to keep trying to convince myself that I learned something valuable in the process!

Conversely, I think about those that are “always right” by de Bono’s quote.  These are the folks that are heard from infrequently and when heard are always using the words and thoughts of others verbatim.  I’ve often wondered why they bother.  Why not just say “Check out so and so”.  I read or listened to her/his stuff and agree.  It’s the safe route and you don’t have to worry about bring wrong.

I think about the blogs that I read regularly.  I always thought that it was because they posted regularly and I know that it’s worth the time and effort to click on over there.  Upon further reflection, it’s probably because they are always throwing out new ideas or new thinking.  When you commit to blogging regularly, you commit to sharing your thinking as it happens.

Therein lies the power of blogging and why it can have such a big sphere of influence.  It doesn’t have to be based upon research and academics with their peer reviews, publications, ISBN numbers, and the lot.  It’s just about sharing good ideas.

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