Summary: Seb Paquet has put his finger on something. Or, rather, he has tapped the finger of the hand that already rests on something, something very important. There are various reasons for writing a weblog; in this one Seb's remarks have brought to mind the what might be called theCommunity of Truth Seakers, Living and Dead

Visit Seb's site and you will note links to those with and without a weblog, to those offline and and to those who are deceased. Edsger Dijkstra is in the last category.

Seb's entry serves to note and celebrate our access to his thoughts and to remark on his virtues as a truth searcher.

I can now celebrate my access to Dijkstra's thoughts (having already marked several entries for deep reading) and want to extract and extend two ideas which were provoked by Sebs entry. Those ideas pertain to the nature and motivation of some who write weblogs.

One of the ideas is of Dijkstra's and the other derives from a colleague's description of Dijkstra.(Both are drawn via Seb from the article Dijkstra and thinking out loud

On why some of us might write a weblog[D was referring to a journal]--Dyskstra notes that at the center of it, in his case, is:

The need to get some sort of verbal grip on your own pondering [causes you to write now and in the future, in the hopes that] as time progresses, patterns will become distinguishable.

On the personal characteristics necessary to pursue such a course [writing and publishing entries in which imperfection is necessarily manifested as the quest for higher order understanding is pursued] his colleague observed the following in Diijkstra:

searing integrity and [[sigma]] humility and willingness to make a complete ass of [oneself in front of any who link to and read one's entries]

I never met Dijkstra, now to my regret, but I suspect that his motiviation was not simply to benefit his students or colleagues. Speaking for myself, as a weblog writer and someone who's also taught learning methods by learning in front of students, I would agree that student benefit is one of the paramount motivations, yes. But also, I believe, the drive to discover/rediscover the order underlying the chaos of experience necessitates that one speak out with integrity. Thus, as so many saw Dijkstra do, one must be willing to sacrifice self-conscious fearfulness to the higher goods of uncovering underlying truths. In speaking out one also recognizes, subscribes to and helps in the constant recreation of the truth-seeking community .