The concept of blogging is predicated on short form writing, not long thoughtful expository writing. I just had that epiphany.
One of the reasons I’ve been dilatory in blogging is that I agonize over what to write, edit, rewrite, and publish. I just had a personal newsflash that I need to pick a topic–say, the absurd state of healthcare in America–and just write stream-of-consciousness highly analytical treatises in short form (less than 250 words).
Maybe now we’ll get into a rhythm and my blog posts will start to flow.
Welcome to The Long Waves Blog. Well, I’m not sure how I feel about finally jumping on the bandwagon and starting to write my own blog. But I pressed a few keys and wham! in less than a minute I have my own little 50MB corner of the Internet (or is that Internets?) to ramble on half intelligently–I hope. Now what the heck am I going to say? What am I thinking, getting into blogging? I’m too old for this and nobody cares–or should care–what I say. We’ll just have to see what percolates from my mind and winds up on the fantastical series of tubes (yes, Ted Stevens was right) that Al Gore invented.
You might be thinking what’s with the name “Longwaves”? It is a reference to the Long Wave Theory of economic growth and is significant to me given my background as an Historian of technology and business. I first came across the economic thinking of Nikolai Kondratieff in Ernst Mandel’s 1980 publication “Long Waves of Capitalist Development” from Cambridge University Press. Then I later read more about it in the various publications of Joseph Schumpeter. Schumpeter is probably the most important economic thinker you’ve never heard of.
Therefore I decided to call my blog “longwaves”
As I get into more serious subjects I will begin to explore how Long Wave Theory and the Schumpeterian concept of Creative Destruction lie at the heart of our modern society. My writing will hopefully cast light on the implications of these theoretical constructs in our everyday lives.