One of my Life goals is to write and publish a book. I have conjured up various materials already and have an idea of what this book figment will be about.

As I get myself further immersed in this new medium of expression (called blogging… hehe), I am slowly, but surely beginning to accept that I may not NEED to write and publish a book.

Then, someone reinforced my thoughts on the above. That’s another link love to Marc Andreessen’s blog…

Here’s what got my attention (5th Lesson for Marc Andreessen):

Fifth, writing a blog is way easier than writing a magazine article, a published paper, or a book — but provides many of the same benefits.

I think it’s an application of the 80/20 rule — for 20% of the effort (writing a blog post but not editing and refining it the quality level required of a magazine article, a published paper, or a book), you get 80% of the benefit (your thoughts are made available to interested people very broadly).

Arguably blogging is better because the distribution of a blog can be even broader than a magazine article, a published paper, or a book, at least in cases where the article/paper/book is restricted by a publisher to a limited readership base.

This of course assumes that you’re not trying to make a living writing magazine articles or books, or you’re not trying to get tenure as a professor by publishing peer-reviewed research papers.

However, at least in the former case, even the money part is changing fast. There are now a meaningful number of bloggers making a reasonable, even great, living by blogging, in some cases substantially more money than they would writing for a magazine or a book publisher.

It is going to be tremendous fun to see the race that is rapidly evolving between blogging on the one hand and traditional forms of publishing on the other hand — there are advantages on all sides, but I think blogging is going to post a lot more challenges to magazines, newspapers, books, and other forms of traditional written media in the years to come, and more so than many people in those industries currently imagine.

It’s also been striking to me how much more fun blogging is versus public speaking — at least for me. And the reach from blogging seems to be much broader than speaking even at the largest conferences. I’m not sure I’ll ever speak in public again — I’ll be at home instead, blogging in my underwear.

I know of friends who are seriously considering writing a book. Hope you get the drift with item # 5 above.

Here we go again, Guys…

I don’t want to be a Marc Andreessen linkblog, but I am just thoroughly enjoying his posts! (Advice: if you are regularly reading my Blog, I suggest you put http://blog.pmarca.com in your blogroll for I’ll be linking him a lot! Hehehe…)

This new post of his really got me. Couldn’t stop laughing (especially at number 2). Man, I am still wiping away tears of laughter…

Haaay…. Anyway…

This guide (1st of a multi-part post) is for those who would wish to start a business, be their own boss, manage their own time, etc. Or rather, Part 1 is, actually, intended for those who are still on the fence, sitting, and thinking of whether or not to start a business, be their own boss, manage their own time, etc.

I am sure we’ll achieve some filtering here. For those who’d like to continue reading the next installments of the guide, you can go check Mr. Marc Andreessen’s blog (you can click on the link there —-> click on the link on my Blogroll).

In my earlier posts, I mentioned Marc Andreessen’s recently created blog. I think I don’t have to tell you that it is a great read. If you are curious to find out how thinks and what is a day like for a man his stature (dang… he’s only 35 years old! Turning 36 this year!) , then, read on.

Marc has accomplished so much (need I mention Netscape again??) in his young life and we can expect more from him in the years to come. Presently, he busies himself with his new company called NING, apart from the myriad other things he preoccupies himself with (his blogging, his VC concerns, etc.).

So, to the point of this post… if you are carrying a hellish schedule and are looking for ways to maximize the 8-hour or 10-hour or 12-hour or 18-hour (Hey! Get a Life!) work day, take a look at Marc Andreessen’s Guide to Personal Productivity.

Can’t keep a schedule? Then, don’t keep one!