For (honest) politicians, I think that blogs could be a good (but risky) PR move even in this superficial society based on image because politicians are often seen distant from the ‘real’ people, only caring about their corporate friends and other issues not related to the normal people. Their blog could give them a more personal side, where people could relate more easily. But this is assuming that people would be understanding instead of jumping on any flaw, inconsistency, etc. that they could find (like hungry journalists looking for the scoop), which I don’t know if this would be the case.

For the business world, I guess then that you are screwed because you don’t have the image that the human resource folks would look for: “it’s not professional to have all his personal musings on the web"…

If you are really worried about it, you could switch to the anonymous personal section option like you said. At an extreme level, you would also need to erase traces of your personal musings in the Wayback Machine and such…

Personally, I find that the more the info, the better. Humans are rich and complex. Just having the PR crap doesn’t interest me. Personal musings help to get a better sense of the real human being, and when you are used to more personal info disclosure, you learn to judge less quickly people as you discover the more profound richness of a person. But of course, you have to have a specific set of mind to appreciate this.

For a person applying for a high ranked leadership position, I would expect them to have a very mature outlook on life and to be able to deal with their personal problems in a very constructive way. There’s an aspect of self-confidence that I think is important to be a leader, and so in some sense they wouldn’t be ashamed of exposing themselves on the net. If I was to hire someone, I would be delighted to have more info about them using the net. It could help to have a better picture than the superfical image of a resume or quick interview (depending on how much depth the person is going into on the net). The problem is that you are competing with other people who are not disclosing the same amount of information (and projecting a pre-digested image made for what they are looking for). I’d like the most info, but hey, I am not in human resource!

Anyway, all the above is pretty idealistic. I think that more info disclosure could help to make a better world, where people would be more understanding (because not hiding everything in tabou and the such which is not favourable to a better understanding of the issues). This would be a more complex world, though. People couldn’t just jump on their first impressions.

But the bottom line is: if you don’t feel comfortable with all your personal musings, it appears to be a problem in your business relationships, and you don’t want to fight for your right to be human; well, then, yes, just switch to something anonymous.

And just one another thing to mention: past is past. People grow, learn and evolve (or the opposite, but you wish it was the former). Between a person who never really ponders about their life and seems to be less vulnerable by their behavior / writings / etc.; and a person who was more introspective, less confident at first, but who slowly grown wiser about life and got enough positive results to become more confident about their outlook, I’d gladly choose the second one for a position which requires dealing with people.  Introspection is a useful skill, and helps at the same time empathy. And growth is an essential term in this capitalistic world. So personal growth could even be marketable! ;o) Could we add it to our CV? “By careful personal psychological analysis shared with an online community, went from a socially ackward whiner to a self-confident leader who can foster goal achievements and problem solving in an empathic setting.” ;op That would be funny…

[Just to be clear (you never know with those blog entries), I’m not talking about you here. I’m not saying that you are a socially ackward whiner!]

- Posted on Saturday, January 29, 2005 at 19:36 [ Permalink to this comment ]

Simon said:
“Just having the PR crap doesn’t interest me.”

Actually, I wanted to mention that I am obviously not very knowledgeable of the purpose of PR (which is not necessarily to manipulate the masses like some conspiracy theorists could think… ;o).

I already learned a bit by reading the following entry in the CEO Blogger’s Club:
http://prplanet.typepad.com/ceobloggers/2004/09/what_it_takes_t.html

- Posted on Saturday, January 29, 2005 at 20:08 [ Permalink to this comment ]

Adam, I don’t have any easy answers for you, because I don’t even had them for myself.  I deleted my blog completely from the web, as you know. 

I can say one thing: for me, to maintain a blog talking about my thoughts and feelings was a mistake.  It’s not a mistake for all people, but it was a mistake for me. 

I am by nature a very open person, and I tried to carry that over to my blog, but I think it’s important to set some boundaries (what you will and won’t talk about) and STICK to them.  I didn’t.

- Posted on Sunday, January 30, 2005 at 13:30 [ Permalink to this comment ]