I came across Dave Winer’s website back in 1998 or 1999. I don’t remember exactly. I’d never heard of a blog before. But I started reading his site because I enjoyed the way he writes. Some of his best posts have nothing to do about technology. He writes about politics one day and baseball the next. I’ve been thinking the past few days about what makes a good blogger. What drives me to return to certain blogs each day while others I can go weeks without visiting. What I’ve realized is that I visit those blogs which are created by my favorite writers. I ultimately decided to blog because I wanted to improve my writing skills. I probably would have eventually started a blog but it wasn’t until I came across Winer’s site that I felt interested enough to install Greymatter. Noah Grey created the first software I used to create a blog nearly 9 years ago. I’m really bummed I lost a lot of my early posts due to a hard drive failure years ago. I’ve since moved to WordPress, but it’s certainly worth a visit to Noah’s personal website to check out his amazing photography.
Here is the list of my top 6 favorite writers:
1. Dave Winer – This is the first blog I ever read. I enjoy those posts that have nothing to do with technology the best.
2. Malcolm Gladwell – You know him as the author of Blink and The Tipping Point. I only recently came across his blog. Gladwell has the skill to take a complex idea and make it simple to understand. It’s as if every single word is carefully chosen to describe exactly what’s in his brain.
3. Seth Godin – Seth is a man of few words and his blog entries reflect that minimalist philosophy. I liked his writing so much I bought every single audio book of his I could find on iTunes this past year and listened to them all at least twice. He can tell a captivating story in very few words. He’s clear and concise while using interesting examples to get his point across. This is the first blog I check every single day.
4. Kathy Sierra – She is a breath of fresh air. Kathy has her own style that’s for certain. She has a wonderful sense of humor and creates some of the coolest and funnest graphics you’ll find anywhere. Is there anyone who puts more effort and thought into each post than Kathy? Every single post is quality. Don’t expect numerous daily updates but when Bloglines tells me she just posted, I drop whatever I’m doing and go read her.
5. Scott Adams – Yep, the same guy that created the Dilbert cartoon is an amazing writer. Sometimes his topics are a bit too serious for me (all the war articles) but I really enjoy most of his writing. His sense of humor comes through his posts as does his humility. He just seems like a guy I’d like to catch a movie and pizza with and then sit around and talk about all the weirdos walking around.
6. Bill Simmons – Simmons is an ESPN columnist, otherwise known as the “Sports Guy”. If I could wave a magic wand and suddenly be able to write like anyone…it would be Simmons. I wouldn’t even have to think about it. I just love the way this guys writes. He writes mostly about sports but is tuned into about any area of pop culture you can imagine. Like this post about the best of You Tube. I tried to read his book about the Boston Redsox on the train into work but kept embarrassing myself when I’d begin laughing out loud.
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