About

“Richard Duffy writing a blog. Finally come down off his high horse then?”

— No-one (fabricated quote for dramatic effect)

I used to think that blogs were for armchair warriors. Weirdos in their pyjamas criticising the world without anything useful to contribute to it. But blogs are really quite popular now, and there are many well respected ones. Not just the professional ones either, amateur blogs are often very respectable indeed.

So yes, my opinion has changed. As I witness more and more people, including my friends, establishing blogs without becoming blithering idiots I’m starting to gain a grudging respect for the format. It’s reached the point now that I’ve started one of my own. But what on earth will I put in it?

To start with I’m going to use these pages for some shameless self promotion, gathering all of my published work starting roughly a year ago in one easy to access location. Using the site solely as a place to showcase material that already appears elsewhere would seem somewhat of a waste of space however, so I guess I’m just going to have to create some original content too.

I have an odd little world view which is a fun combination of idealist and pessimist. I have a ridiculously optimistic view of the future, a future so perfect and happy that not even I have the slightest notion of what it would look like. Meanwhile, I believe that the world we live in right now, when compared to the ridiculously optimistic vision I have, is a fair bit shit.

There are parts of our current world I quite like, and there are often pleasant surprises about how well things are going, but there’s still a stupid amount of crap to put up with. Many of my posts on this site will be ranting about those really rubbish parts, and occasionally pointing out what I think looks like a possible route to this fantasy future I believe in.

So that’s the plan anyway, a bunch of published articles and blog posts about fixing the world. Lets just hope things don’t disintegrate into me wailing like a madman in my pyjamas. . .