Blogging makes you a better gatherer of information

People often ask me why I blog, and I can't always explain it very well. But having to answer this question has made me think about it a lot. I used to think that I like to blog because I like to write and it give me an outlet for that creative urge. That's true, but it is also true (as I have learned) that I like to do it because blogging has made me more aware of other bloggers. And the more blogs I read, the more I learn.

For example, today I learned a trick from Instapundit: if Amazon has your lawn mower for sale (yes, they sell appliances) they may even have the manual for download. Which is handy if you lose your manual, as Glenn Reynolds did.

And if you want to learn about web-searching tips on a regular basis I suggest you bop over to Inter Alia and subscribe to Tom Mighell's Internet Legal Research Weekly. It's mostly law-oriented, but not strictly so.

If you want to learn stuff, turn off TV and forget about your local news channel. Instead, get a news reader and load it up with feeds from blogs. You'll learn a lot more and you won't have to sit through boring advertisements.