How (not) to

I can't do it. I can't write a "how to" blog, or book or even an article.

And why?

Because the more I learn, the more I realize how much there is to learn - and how far from expert I am on anything. Yes I know things about stuff, but I've never really specialized in any one thing. There are some who devote their lives to a certain career, a hobby they know inside out, a practice such as yoga or whatever. Me, well I know stuff about stuff - little bits here and there, without knowing something inside out.

Someone once suggested I write a book on single parenting. Sure I could, but it would bore the living daylights out of you - I haven't had any huge battles to fight or gone from depths of despair to heights of success. It's just been mundane everyday parenting from start to here.

I could write a how-to about Series Land Rovers - but Favourite Man and a good few other experts would laugh at me, at my random fumblings and mistaken impressions of how they work.

I could write a how-to about changing your career (4 times and counting) - but how many career changes does it take to make one an expert?

I could write about Schipperkes - but a dog is a dog and I have trouble defending the fact that mine is gold while the entire USA's is black.

I could try and tell you how to write - but everyone has their own voice, and the way I do it wouldn't work for you.

I could give you lessons in playing the piano - except I play by ear and instinct more than sheet music and rule. I couldn't give you a how-to for any other instrument - I've never gotten around to trying guitar or harp (would love to) or flute.

I could tell you how to take a computer apart, yet even 60 IBM ThinkPads are all different in subtle ways and there's no set method to go about it. Line up 40 old monitors and they're equally unique.

I could give you a how-to on growing veggies organically, or spout forth on herding chickens in a coop on your lawn, random ideas on aquaponics and hydroponics, green building, wind power, slipform masonry - all things I know a little about, but not enough to issue instructions.

I could tell you how to set up a website - but only with Dreamweaver, minimal CSS/Javascript and the server stuff I know smidgens about.

So I'm going to leave the how-to blogs and books and articles to those who actually know a lot of stuff about stuff. And keep the random lightbulb moments, the smattering of general knowledge and ongoing verbosity about everything in general / nothing in particular to myself.