I’ve been in the web publishing industry for a dozen years, and yet, I hadn’t started blogging until…well…a couple weeks ago.  Sure, I thought about it.  I even dabbled with LiveJournal as a personal open journal, but stopped abruptly when I realized my ex-girlfriend shouldn’t have been reading my outpouring of pain from losing her.

As a software development manager and product manager, I had plenty to blog about, but I chose not to.  I’m not the best writer (although I’m far from the worst), but that didn’t stop me.  Why did I wait until now?

It’s simple.  Who would want to read my blog?  And if I got a ton of readers, would I just be duping them?  Could I live with that?  Sure, I felt that I was very good at what I do.  But was I an “expert,” and wouldn’t blogging be inappropriately declaring myself as one?  How much experience did I have?  Was my opinion or experience relevant?

But in this new age of social media, loaded with blogging, microblogging, user-generated content, social bookmarking, etc., I’ve finally realized I missed a very important point.  It doesn’t matter if I’m an expert or not.  The beauty of this world is the ability to spur conversation and thought.  It doesn’t matter so much whether my opinions or “right” or “wrong,” but instead it matters that it triggers thought.

This is why all of these Twitter ranking services make me a little ill (although I’ll admit that I always know my Grader Twitter grade).  Self-proclaimed experts are the worst kind, and unfortunately, the most common kind.  So, while I certainly believe that I’m great at what I do, I’ll let you decide whether or not I’m an expert.  And if you follow me on Twitter, thereby increasing my Twitter Grader or twitterrank, does that make me an expert?

No, it does not.

But should that stop me from blogging?

No, it should not.

And so, here I am.  Please send me your non-expert blog links, and I’ll be happy to add you to my blogroll.  And please, let me know what you think about what I’m saying here.  That’s the whole point.  Waiting for your comments…