The purpose of this blog is to provide a central place for me to develop and catalog my thoughts on a wide variety of topics. I chose the name “GuttReaction” because I expect the bulk of my posts to consist of a link to an article or podcast that I found to be particularly interesting, followed by my thoughts and reactions to it.

There are a number of reasons why I’ve chosen to use this medium and format. First and foremost, I’m not a fan of comment sections. Comment sections are not a good place for really getting into any sort of depth about one’s position. Nuance and context seem to be in short supply these days, and are virtually impossible to convey without some length. I’d also much rather read a longer, well reasoned and written blog post than a comment thread.

I listen to a lot of podcasts and read a lot of online content. Over time I’ve built up a list/playlist of lots of “content creators” that I find to be particularly interesting. It’s rarely the case that I’ll find only one particular post/article/episode by a creator to be interesting. If I like a particular writer, I find it very helpful to be able to see lots of their content in one place, rather than scattered around comment threads on dozens of different sites. As I begin to generate more content (and hopefully develop some readership), I’d like to offer the same.

I also like the idea of being able to track the development of my ideas over time. That will be much easier to do if the bulk of my content is located in one place, as opposed to random comments posted to a variety of sites. I find it particularly interesting to watch how creators that I’ve enjoyed change over time. I have a great deal of respect for people who not only have well thought out positions, but who are able to modify their positions as things change. I think it would be interesting to periodically come back to older posts and see if I agree with my former self.