Being ever immersed in details and a macro-lens-perspective, it can be refreshing (and downright necessary) to take a step back at times. What the hell am I working on? And why? These are questions so crucial that one should really be asking them every day.
In times like ours, which are permeated by fickle fragmentation, enforced stress, and the minutest of minute memes, the challenge becomes a quintessential one: how can I keep my thinking and my focus uniquely my own? Because if it isn’t mine, then whose is it?
One of my favourite people of all time is Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). His world famous “essays” (literally: “attempts”) still linger on as invaluable insights into not just the mind of a 16th century humanist-philosopher but into another human life, period.
Sure, sometimes Montaigne is a bit meandering. But, then again, most tweets are meandering in their 140 characters, too. They may contain a high signal of opinion and (possibly) passion but they are also forgotten the very same second someone’s read them.
Montaigne, on the other hand, never goes out of print (or style). I think it mainly has to do with A) his understanding of the mechanics of history, and B) his humble attitude. Montaigne writes a subdued kind of local history that always paints a bigger picture in-between the lines, filtered through his own experience and position. He makes no claims of being an expert at anything at all; nor does he have an agenda. It’s very refreshing to read him in this day and age when people are hubristic beyond belief, and seem to have nothing but an agenda of some kind.
If you want longevity and be visible/readable in the future, write about the present. Write well (as well as you can) but try to stay away from perspectives larger than your own. Usually, these larger perspectives are actually smaller than your own. Why? Because no-one matters more than you in your life. If that humble yet proud perspective or attitude is skewed or run over by our contemporary contortions of conformity, you will be too.
Think, write, share. Inform and inspire rather than instruct. That’s one solid key to a good “social media” presence. I know, because Montaigne told me so.
