More is Less

There are two kinds of sailing blogger...

Some bloggers post infrequently, but when they do write a post they have something really interesting to say.

Others (like me) feel a compulsion to post something almost every day.

Two of my favorite blogs in the first category are Apparent Wind and Laser Sailing Notes.

Yarg of Apparent Wind averages about four posts per month, but you know that when he does post, it is going to be well worth a read. Recently we have had

• A Conversation with O'Brien which is about an imaginary conversation that Yarg had with an imaginary friend about an imaginary dream (I think), or perhaps it's really about two different philosophies of one-design sailing,
  
  
• Is Discretion Really the Better Part of Valor? which recounts a high school regatta sailed in atrocious conditions in illustration of a quotation from Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I, and
  
  
• Practice Failure in which Yarg describes a coaching drill that didn't work out which leads him to muse on the parallel between sailing practice and "holistic thinking embodied in the English Romantics, the American Transcendentalists, and Eastern Philosophy."

Jay Livingston who writes Laser Sailing Notes also averages only one or two posts a week, but they are always worth reading. Recent posts have included

• Dreams, Goals and Practice in which Jay uses an anecdote about walking around in circles to introduce an insightful discussion about sailing goals,
  
  
• Meditation Can Improve Your Sailing which debunks some popular clichés about meditation and provides numerous practical examples of how meditation can indeed improve your sailing, and
  
  
• For Men Only, a sensitive and perceptive discussion of how men behave when they are injured or sick, and how we need to look out for each other.

As you can see Yarg and Jay are very much the thinking man's sailing bloggers.

I, on the other hand, average about one post a day. There is no way that I could produce posts every day of the quality to be found on Yarg's and Jay's blogs. It is no coincidence that so many of my posts have the label Utter Nonsense. It sometimes feels as if my writing mantra is "More is Less."

Perhaps I should be more like Jay and Yarg?

On the other hand a recent study has shown How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect.

So take your pick. If you prefer quality over quantity, read Jay and Yarg. If you really think that nonsense sharpens the intellect, read Proper Course. Or if you like pictures of half-naked women holding big fishes, then read Joe Rousse (rhymes with mousse.)

Just remember. More is Less.