This blog post is running in support of my Punish Geoff Fundraiser: Civilination! Please consider a donation to support better online conversations. At the time of publishing, $240 in matching donations remained.
I often come up with blog ideas and then scrap them. They’re too pointed, petty or pedantic. So in the name of mindfulness, they get tossed in the Waste Bin.
But rather than just delete the posts altogether, I kept a running list of titles for [censored] and giggles. Here they are:
- The Machiavellian Guide to Managing Personal Branders
- Stop Whining About Facebook Privacy. PLEASE!
- I Don’t Want to Read Your Rough Draft
- If I Had an Office, There Would Be No Chairs
- You Can’t Replace Courtesy with Social Updates
- Worthy A-Listers
- Author: Why Is Being Underpaid and Poor Cool?
- Real Authors Don’t Brag About Trade Books
- Read the Dictionary
- What Being in the Top 1% of Influencers Gets You
So what does this list tell you?
I still think like an [censored]. I’ve just developed a three second pause in speech, and the good sense not to publish inflammatory posts. Maybe one day, I’ll get to the point where I think more lovingly and with less snark.
It does feel better to not publish these things. And as a result, I think we can all agree this small corner of the world is more civil.
So what do you think? Should we restrain our own speech in the name of civility and mindfulness? The best five comments will win a copy of my former colleague Andrea Weckerle’s new book Civility in the Digital Age.
A version of this post ran originally on Kaarina Dillabough’s blog. Featured image by Steve Brokaw.