Of Blogs, Posts and Maslow's Hierachy

So - day 1 as an official blogger is now over, and I've decided that +1 may actually be something I like. In fact, I got a few +1's today, and they made me feel good. Sadly, I never got any posts, even though I promised at least 2 staff an increase if they posted something to stroke my ego. Ah well, seems John Doerr was right after all!

On the other hand, 26 people viewed my blog between the time I wrote it, and round about now. Now, whilst these are certainly not what you would call an overwhelming response anywhere but at a friendly taxi driver conference, it was definitely a start.

I've realised that I'm actually writing these blogs for me. That's kind of a Self-actualisation if you think about it - the very top of Maslow's hierarchy of need. Yet posts and +1's - these fall squarely into Esteem, and maybe even Belonging.

This whole thing fascinates me, enough to write my second blog about it. If I'm writing the blog for me, then why should I care about the lower levels. In theory, each level is required for a person to rise to the next - in other words, you can't worry about anything else if you're starving, but once you've eaten, you want a safe place to sleep. When those needs are regularly fulfilled, you can start to think about Belonging to a group, and ultimately, what those people think of you.

Only when you've risen ABOVE all that, can you reach for self-actualisation. At least, thats the theory. And yet here I am - doing something for me, then worrying about whether other people liked me. or +1'ed me. Seems very confusing, and I realise that I am very glad I never studied psychology, and instead went into the simple world of managing people every day. Oh wait, uhm, great! I do the same thing, but don't have a diploma!

Well, you can't win them all, and this blog is surely going to go down as one of my most boring in what will hopefully be a long career of self fulfilling writing, buffed up nicely by lots of interesting posts, likes and +1's from a growing reader base who suffer through these diatribes in the hope that they'll eventually get better when I finally have something to write about!

Whew. Should I even post this? Is there any doubt?