On writing in public (and why I started)

I started writing in public because I noticed I was thinking less clearly than I used to.

Not less often. Just less clearly. The thoughts had become recursive. They folded back on themselves before they ever reached a sentence. I could feel the shape of an idea but I couldn't deliver it to anyone, including myself.

Writing in public is a forcing function for that problem. The audience is mostly imaginary, but the imaginary audience is enough. Knowing that someone might read it forces the thought to land somewhere.

There's a second reason. Most of what I do at Blue Horizon Labs is help operators see their own business clearly. I cannot credibly ask a founder to tell the truth about their company in plain language if I am not willing to do the same with my own thinking. The blog is partly an audit trail. If I write something here that is wrong, that's available to the next client to read.

There's a third reason that took longer to admit. I write in public because I am trying to find the people who think the same way I do. Operators who suspect that the entire consulting industry has lost the thread. Founders who want a partner instead of a deck. Other people who came up loving hip hop and ended up running businesses and never quite stopped looking for the pocket. The blog is a flag.

If you found it, that's the point.