OK, so I read blogs. And, frankly, I agree with most observers that by creating a mass market medium for the publishing, subscription and tagging of user-created content (see Fred Wilson), blogging is redefining the customer-centric model for most businesses. Hey, even in the private investment world, VC bloggers are providing their LPs, portfolio companies and partners with a unique customer-centric view of their business. So, yes, I get it.

But, here's my problem. Why do VCs or other people blog? I don't mean the occassional informative blog or creative musing. I mean persisent daily blogging, a.k.a., blogging diarreah. I've thought about this for some time and have actually consulted some friends of mine who are psychologists. The most obvious, and I would suggest most honest, answer is that it is the latest form of narcissism: digital narcissism. Sure, bloggers may argue that it is about communication, education, social networking, etc. Yeah, that's true at some level. But, you can't ignore the fact that persistent bloggers are out their creating their own content to get attention, to demonstrate to others how smart, informed, powerful, impressive, they are. See: http://radio.weblogs.com/0110772/2005/01/27.html#a1690.

So, is persistent blogging and digital narcissism a problem? Not really. But, yes. It's a problem because the motivations of narcissism are deep and impact on the message; put another way, to quote McLuhan, the medium here is in many ways the message. I believe this is a problem, as the blogging arena is quickly shifting from information to affirmation or from ego to id. As a reader of blogs, I now approach every blog entry with this question: what is their motivation in writing this: information or affirmation? You would be surprised how easy it is to tell the difference.

Lastly, if I were funded by a VC that was a persistent blogger I would be concerned. Not because of the sharing of confidential information. But, because it is a huge sucker of time. Think about it. How long do you think Rick Segal of JL Albright spends each day, drafting, reviewing and publishing his blogs. It's gotta be at least 1-2 hours a day, especially if you include the trackbacks, other blog links, etc. So, before blogging Rick had 1-2 hours to spend thinking about my business or helping me with my growth strategy. That time has now been sucked away by blogging. And, why? Pure and simply, narcissism.

I've been "blogging" since the 1980s with newgroups, compuserve, etc. To me it's nothing really new. It's about 3 hours a day that I spend looking at news, reading, etc, which is just part of my thing. The net new time spent is probably 30 minutes. As for Ego? Probably. I'd like to believe it's about personal brand, conversation, meeting people, sharing ideas, blaah blaah, but ego is part of everything we do.